The Democratic Alliance (DA) will launch an appeal against a decision by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development not to release a report on a compensation fund for victims of crime, the party said on Monday.
The DA’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard said the department turned down an access to information request for a copy of the report titled Sentencing: a Compensation Fund for Victims of Crime.
The report, compiled by the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC), was handed to the department in March 2004. It apparently proposed several legislative changes with regard to victims of crime.
”Why are the recommendations made in the report so secret that they cannot be shared with the public?” Kohler-Barnard asked.
She said the DA believed that the report argued for the establishment of a fund for victims of crime — something the African National Congress government has consistently refused to set up — or it was highly critical of the way in which the government was dealing with victims of crime and their plight.
She said the DA would also approach the SALRC to ask whether it was willing to make a copy of the report available to the party.
The department did not want to comment immediately, asking for written questions before it responded. — Sapa