The Soul City Institute for Social Justice hosted a round table discussion to discuss the low instances of convictions for rape in South Africa.
The discussion, which was held on 21 November in Dunkeld, highlighted the importance of Thuthuzela Care Centres, which provide a range of services to victims of rape and sexual abuse, in ensuring convictions.
More than 32 000 cases were reported to the care centres this year and currently 39 per cent of those cases have resulted in convictions.
Experts from various areas in the justice system participated in the discussion. They included Mercilene Machisa from the South African Medical Research Council, Major General Tebello Mosikili from the South Africa Police Service, Zukiswa White from the Soweto Women’s Forum and Advocate Pierre Smith from the National Prosecuting Authority.
They discussed in depth the different reasons why women and children find it difficult to access justice after they experienced sexual violence.
Mosikili, who is the national head of Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Investigations, said some of the challenges faced within the police service include a lack of resources and amount of investigators necessary to investigate the large amount of cases.
“We have 2 700 investigators across the country which is nothing, its like a drop, looking at the number of cases we receive and need to respond to,” said Mosikili.
Smith said a possible option to improve service delivery was that the focus has to be paid to the finalisation rate of cases. This needs to be addressed by all relevant role players. He also mentioned that court utilisation hours should be improved and ongoing training is essential in the criminal justice system.
White added that it was essential to remember the people behind the statistics. She also said that victims’ reasons for not wanting to report rape also needed to be addressed. “We need to engage seriously outside of that and not just make them footnotes,” said White.
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