There’s no price on a woman’s grief

One of the saddest – and most outrageous – realities in a country where gender-based violence is a scourge, is how the victims of sexual violence are treated.

Their stories are doubted, they are treated with disrespect and often find their dignity destroyed. In many cases, it is the criminal justice system that victimises them for a second time.

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We use the word victims deliberately, knowing that some prefer to use the word “survivor” for those who are raped, because the act is something deliberately carried out and not a random act of nature.

It is galling to hear, then, that police have revealed that more than 110 000 sexual assault kits are currently available to victims… but not all police stations have them.

The kits are used by police when taking or referring a victim of assault to a medical facility to collect evidence.

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The amount of kits often far exceeded the number required, according to an answer given to parliament by police commissioner General Fannie Masemola.

Masemola said some stations did not have kits because it is “not necessarily cost-effective”.

So now, we are putting a price on the suffering of a person – almost always a woman. Something is grievously wrong here, General.