With less than one in five gender-based violence (GBV) cases making it to trial and only one in 12 cases concluded with a guilty sentence, according to the South African Medical Research Council, things are looking bleak for women this Women’s Month.
Between April 1 and June 30 alone about 200 cases serving before court were withdrawn as a result of police inefficiencies by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Mitchell’s Plain resident Janelle Laattoe has first hand experience.
Ms Laattoe spoke at a sitting at the Philisa Abafazi Bethu Family Centre in Retreat after receiving help from the organisation and Action Society, a civil rights organisation, who have been assisting her with her case.
She spoke about her struggles getting justice for the abuse she suffered at the hands of an ex-boyfriend and said it’s heartbreaking to know that she is one of those numbers.
“I am so fortunate to tell my story and that I’ve been given a platform to voice it because I’ve been silenced since 2018 and many women in my position have never lived to tell the tale,” she said.
“If you open up the newspapers you will always see women being killed by their partners and if you look at the history of many of these cases you’ll see there is a history where the women reported their partners for GBV but then they get bail and then these men come back to finish what they started.”
For three years Ms Laattoe experienced mental, physical, emotional and other abuse from her partner including having her arm crushed and reconstructed and in October of 2018 she reported a case of domestic violence at Delft police. Since then it’s been a constant struggle with several court appearances in 2019, the matter being provisionally withdrawn and earlier this year it was revealed that the case docket was missing and her statements weren’t digitally captured.
“Years after the abuse the scars are still there and I was left to deal not only the physical abuse but everything after that, there is no support to help us as women get justice from the abuse we endure from our partners,” said Ms Laattoe.
Philisa Abafazi Bethu Women’s centre founder and human rights activist Lucinda Evans said there is a lack of victim support within the police system to help women during the process of reporting rape and making cases against abusive partners.
“In 1956 the women of this country were part of the process and supported the freedom of this country but the women of 2022 are forgotten and we are surely not protected. We are not safe.
“The genocide of our vaginas is continuously unabated and I use the word genocide because if you rape someone, the person dies inside,” said Ms Evans.
Action Society’s Ian Cameron said there is no cause for celebration this Women’s Month because of stories like Janelle’s.
“We want to make sure that stories like Janelle’s are highlighted and that these women don’t just become statistics. We need to bring about some kind of change because every victim has a name.”
Reagan Allen, MEC for Community Safety and Police Oversight, said their directorate will recommend the investigators of GBV and other cases should put “shoulder to the wheel” in an effort to ensure that all relevant and required dockets are brought to court in time and on the specified date, while also doing everything in their power to complete the docket before it is sent to the court.
“Once we are able to achieve this, we will start seeing fewer cases being thrown out of court.”
Provincial police have not responded to Southern Mail’s enquiries about the aforementioned issues relating to cases withdrawn as a result of police inefficiencies.
