POLOKWANE – “A police officer has his firearm and a bulletproof vest and in a patrol vehicle there must be a torch, rape kit and gloves,” stresses Capt Ntobeng Phala, Polokwane police spokesperson.
“If it happens that police officers do not have these required items when they attend to a crime scene, it is due to negligence by the individuals and it must be reported in writing so that steps can be taken to eliminate these problems,” Phala explained.
This follows reports that the police did not have a rape kit when they attended to a scene where a woman, who is a gym instructor at Curves Gym, was attacked and raped at her workplace in Bendor on Monday, 5 October.
The rape kit failed to be produced within the required 72 hours after the incident happened and the clothing she wore during the attack was also not taken into evidence. The clothes could have been sound DNA evidence but have since been washed.
Phala confirmed there is not a shortage of rape kits in the city nor in the province. “In the Polokwane policing area rape victims are taken to one of the Thuthuzela Care Centres, which are established within the Seshego and Mankweng hospitals. The rape kit would have been unsealed in front of the victim, it would again be sealed in front of the victim after examination by a forensic nurse or a medical doctor, and the police would then take along the rape kit for packaging to the forensic science laboratory,” Phala said.
He explains the police’s procedure when arriving at a rape scene:
• Establish safety in and around the scene.
• Identify the victim and comfort her without touching her.
• Establish if the perpetrator is around and effect arrest.
• Identify family or next of kin for support of the victim.
• Interview the victim and transport her to a recommended medical facility, such as one of the Thuthuzela Care Centres, for an examination which is done by a doctor or forensic nurse, with a crime kit.
• After examination the police will take a sealed rape kit to forensic laboratory within seven days for further tests.
• Any evidential value item like clothes will also be collected for DNA tests.
“Evidence from the rape victim must be collected within 72 hours. The challenges if evidence is not collected immediately within the stipulated timeframe is to lose such evidence. There are three crime scenes in every rape case, the victim, the suspect and the crime scene itself,” Phala said.
It is important that a rape victim does not bath after the incident, he added. “If the victim baths it amounts to a crime scene being tampered with and that can seriously hamper investigations,” Phala said.
The police gave the following advice in case of a rape incident:
• If a victim is confronted with a situation of rape she must try as much as possible to submit to the situation and not fight the perpetrator.
• If a victim resorts to a fight it can only make the situation worse as perpetrators are violent by virtue of their actions.
• The submission of the victim will always boost the confidence of the perpetrator.
• The victim can then look at the perpetrator properly after confidence is built for the purpose of possible compilation of an identikit. The look at the perpetrator must not be an obvious one as it can also exacerbate the situation.
• The victim must phone the police as soon as possible after the ordeal and report the matter.
• The victim must allow examination to take place as the cooperation will smoothen the investigation and therefore yield good results.
