Police on Friday defended the redeployment of officers dealing with crimes against women and children, saying the new system was proving to be effective.
”Rape cases have decreased significantly in Mpumalanga, while the conviction rate has increased substantially, specifically in areas that did not have the units previously, such as Tonga, eMbalenhle and Vosman,” said spokesperson Director Selby Bokaba.
DA spokesperson Mike Waters this week told a media briefing that closing the specialised family violence, child abuse and sexual offences (FCS) units and redeploying their members had de-prioritised crimes against women and children.
Bokaba said the restructuring, which took effect in January this year, succeeded in bringing the units dealing with crimes involving women and children closer to the communities.
”The South African Police Service [SAPS] closed down the area offices as they were far removed from the communities they served, and now post-restructuring, all the clusters of stations have the FCS units that travel shorter distances and are easily accessible to the victims,” he said.
But a survey conducted by the opposition party on the units showed that many specially trained FCS officers were now operating as ordinary police officers, Waters said.
Also, all FCS officers were under instruction by their station commanders to work only at the stations at which they were based, leaving vast areas with no coverage by FCS-trained officers.
Bokaba added that the FCS members were ”strategically placed” at stations ”according to the prevalence of crimes” in those areas.
”They were deployed to various clusters together with their resources, and those clusters that do not currently have the victim-friendly rooms, a process is under way to equip them with the necessary logistical tools,” he said.
The DA report further charged that the FCS officers were at the bottom of the pile in terms of allocation of resources, and victim-friendly offices were almost non-existent.
Bokaba added that 47 FCS members were currently receiving training and the training course would run every second month ”until such time as the police score a 100% conviction rate against the perpetrators of crimes committed against women and children”.
”The long-term objective of the SAPS is to have the FCS investigators at all the police stations in the country,” he said.
On Monday, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said his department would look into the DA report and take corrective steps if necessary.
Waters on Friday said a copy of the report had been forwarded to the department. — Sapa