Domestic violence activists and law enforcement have welcomed the news that the Richards Bay Magistrate’s Court is attending to protection order (PO) and protection of harassment order applications.
The service, for which community leaders have lobbied for years, will benefit victims of abuse who, until now, had to travel to Empangeni to make applications.
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A protection order aims at preventing the re-occurrence of domestic violence or sexual harassment by stating what conduct the alleged offender must refrain from doing.
Zululand domestic violence activist, Michelle Michael said Richards Bay Magistrate’s Court will be more easily accessible to residents who are victims of domestic violence, as they will no longer have to travel out of town for this service.
‘It will benefit Richards Bay SAPS as well, because having a court locally will speed up the process.
This should encourage more people to break the cycle of abuse and action change.’
She said it’s hoped that regular training would be provided to both SAPS and court officials to ensure they have an understanding of how to deal with the application of protection orders, especially for male applicants.
‘There will also be less frustration when applicants can have their PO’s served timeously,’ said Michael.
For LifeLine Zululand, having the Richards Bay court provide orders locally will further support the number of clients they are attending to in the King Cetshwayo district.
According to the NPO, they deal with 15 to 20 people a day for cases involving intimate partner violence, gender-based violence, rape, abuse and sexual assault, many of whom need to utilise this court service.
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