Number of GBV cases courts put down for trial is declining

As Women’s Month drew to a close on Wednesday, the lack of justice for female victims of assault and gender-based violence (GBV) was under the spotlight again.

This week, AfriForum’s private prosecution unit assisted Milena Hill in a case against her ex-boyfriend, John Schuurman – also known as Johnny Rockett – after he allegedly assaulted her and broke her nose in January.

In a separate incident, the civil rights group demanded answers from police after a victim of GBV, rape and attempted murder was still in fear for her life while the alleged perpetrator roamed free.

Lisa Vetten, research and project consultant at the faculty of humanities at the University of Johannesburg, said justice was not being served.

Due to the backlog of cases, victims were waiting longer for justice.

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“It’s blamed it on load shedding, Covid and the failure to renew contracts for the maintenance of recording equipment in the courtrooms. You can have a trail and not record it,” she said.

A recent analysis found courts were putting down for trial half the number of rape cases as eight years ago.

“And in 2021, just over 3 000 rapes resulted in a conviction. It is nothing compared to the cases reported. When you look at the raw figures, the number of cases they put down for trial is declining,” she said.

GBV Mediation

No one was paying attention to the bigger problem of how courts were being managed. She added many domestic violence cases were mediated before making it to court.

“Sometimes it is what victims genuinely want, mediation. But some should never be mediated due to the nature of the case,” she said.

Prof Jaco Barkhuizen, victimologist and head of the department of criminology at the University of Limpopo, said GBV was a problem in SA.

“The police aren’t capacitated to deal with GBV. There are massive backlogs of forensic evidence, if you remember the minister’s admission in parliament about the DNA and forensics results,” he said.

Barkhuizen said there was a lack of detectives and specialised investigators “because of a failure by the minister and higher-ups to use budgets correctly, hire more detectives and have people who are specialised in investigating cases of GBV and femicide”.

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Police could not enforce laws and senior prosecutors had left the National Prosecution Authority, leaving a vacuum.

“Victims are supposed to be treated according to the [Service Charter for Victims of Crime],” said Barkhuizen. But “it’s plain and simple – a nonfunctioning and noncaring criminal justice system”.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za