A South African Law Reform Commission report has proposed that legislation should be adopted to provide a comprehensive package deal when dealing with victims of crime.
Official opposition Democratic Alliance safety and security spokesperson Dianne Kohler Barnard said in a statement on Wednesday that it appeared that Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla was sitting on the report — as it had been presented to her ministry in 2004, over two-and-a-half years ago.
A summary of the report says that although the government’s current programme focused on support services, particular categories of victims were targeted and the programme did not comprehensively deal with all the needs of victims of crime. It states that without an effective legislative basis, support services ”will continue to be uncoordinated, fragmented and reactive in nature”.
The DA noted that the legislative proposals put forward by the commission included that an office of victims of crime be established either in the Department of Justice or in the structures of the National Director of Public Prosecutions.
This office would oversee a victims’ charter, promote awareness, develop standards of providers of services, provide information on matters affecting victims and administer a fund for victims of crime.
It also proposed that a permanent body — a victims’ council — be established to advise government and that a fund for victims of crime be established.
The fund for victims of crime would not provide compensation but would rather help victims best utilise the justice system to deal with their situation, a summary of the report noted.
Kohler Barnard added that ”significantly, the report recognises the need for a compensation fund for victims of crime; although, at the time it was commissioned — in 2004 — it argued that such a fund would not be viable because of concerns surrounding is affordability and prerequisites surrounding its administration.
Kohler Barnard said in her recently lodged Private Member’s Bill that her party had proposed a financing scheme and a solution to the problem of fraud, ”by suggesting that only in cases where the perpetrator has been convicted will a person qualify for compensation”.
Her party, she said, would submit questions to Parliament to try to establish why the minister had not acted on the report and why it had not been submitted to the relevant portfolio committee. — I-Net Bridge