The Democratic Alliance (DA) has renewed a call for victims of violent crime to have more say in the justice process and be compensated for crime’s economic and social impact on their lives.
”The justice system needs to change its focus to include providing victims of crime with their rights as a major priority,” the DA said in a discussion document released in Parliament on Monday.
DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said that although South Africa had some measures in place to provide for crime victims, ”none have proved to be effective”.
At the moment, criminals wounded during their arrests were treated at state expense, while their injured victims had to pay for their own treatment.
”This is where a victims’ fund could come in and assist the victim to get the proper health services,” she said.
”Not all victims are on medical aid, and we just want a balance and recognition for victims.
”There is a groundswell that more needs to be done for victims, but we’re saying we want to fast forward this and have specific provisions to force the government to acknowledge victims [and] to recompense them.”
The DA document calls for stronger leadership and political will on the part of government to speed up the roll-out of the so-called Victims’ Charter, which has been approved by the Cabinet, but is awaiting finalisation by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
The document claims that one of the charter’s failings is in not making provision for a state fund for all victims of crime.
Last year, the DA introduced a private member’s Bill seeking to establish such a fund.
DA correctional services spokesperson James Selfe said on Monday that prisoners should be obliged to work on public works-driven projects while serving their sentences.
”There are a number of public-works programmes that are not going to be done unless they’re done by relatively cheap labour.
”I’m talking about the removal of alien vegetation … [and] cleaning up contaminated wetlands.”
He also called for crime victims to be allowed to make submissions at parole-board hearings.
”Even if the decision of the parole board is to release the person anyway, at least it gives the victim an opportunity to say … that they believe the person has not yet paid his or her dues to society, that the sentence should be longer and to know on what basis the parole board decided not to take their advice,” Selfe said. — Sapa