Melville resident and user experience designer Tawanda Mutambwe is looking to change how people in South Africa report sexual assault with his web-based application ReportMatters.
According to Mutambwe, the aim of the platform which is still being developed, is to make it easy and safe for sexual crime victims to report incidents without leaving their homes. He said, “I think a North Star [goal] for ReportMatters would be a platform integrated with health services and the police such that when a victim reports through the app. A case can be filed with the police and the victim can schedule a clinic appointment within the app as well.”
The latest statistics on reported sexual offences nationally show that of the 53 293 sexual offences that were reported, a mind-blowing 93.9 per cent of these were rape. In total, 42 289 rape cases were opened at police stations across the country over the past year, 706 more than the previous year. This gives SA a monthly average of around 3 524 rapes reported and a weekly average of about 881. They stats also show that rape has been on the rise since the 2016/2017 period when 39 828 rapes where reported.
For Mutambwe, one of the biggest issues in dealing with sexual offences was the reluctance to report such matters. “Looking at the data available currently, a lot of incidences go unreported, of those that are reported a fraction ever result in a conviction. So that can stop victims from reporting.”
To those that have been a victim of sexual offences, Mutambwe shared, “We are in this fight together. Do not feel forgotten because there are people out there that are working at making this country a safer place for you.”
Mutambwe is inviting the public to try out his beta version of ReportMatters at https://backendhacks.com/reportmatters
“At the moment, we would like to get the first few users experiencing the app and getting early feedback.”
