New report paints police in bad light

Trauma unleashed in police stations

Female victims of violence face secondary trauma from the police and the legal system when they seek justice.

These are some of research findings by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in partnership with Oxfam South Africa. The study will be released in Johannesburg today.

The study found that the victims of violence felt the institutions that are meant to secure and protect them, such as police stations and the justice system, have allowed violence to continue.

The 66-paged report titled Violence Against Women in South Africa: A Country in Crisis called for “systematic challenges within the police services” to be addressed for trust and confidence in the justice system to be restored.

South Africa has one of the highest incidences of domestic violence in the world.

Statistics SA’s SA Demographic and Health Survey 2016 Key Indicator Report, released in May, found that 21% of women aged 18 years and older have experienced physical violence by a partner.

Nonhlanhla Sibanda, a gender specialist at the CSVR, said their study was from a perspective of women who are survivors of violence, something “rarely explored”.

“The study shows the failures of systems and institutions that are meant to provide support for survivors,” Sibanda said.

She said although South Africa had strong laws, implementation thereof was not effective.

“When women report cases at police stations they have to deal with a negative attitude from police officers,” she said.

But the findings are not surprising, according to gender activist Mbuyiselo Botha.

He called for policemen to be retrained because most of them put victims of violence in the dock whenever charges were being laid.

The study involved interviewing survivors as well as extracting information from focus groups in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Limpopo.

The report contains horrifying tales of abuse.

“I was sent home by police ... my father didn’t feel sorry for me, all he said was ‘you’re a useless child, you deserve to be raped by those boys’,” recalled *Lerato, 20, a gang-rape survivor and abuse victim.

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