‘Ignorance’ stalls rape investigation
Limpopo police are apparently unaware they can use the home affairs department’s database to track suspected criminals
As cases of rapes occur across the country, it has emerged that some police officers are “ignorant” of a 12-year-old law that gives investigators access to the department of home affairs’ fingerprint database in order to help them identify and catch criminals.
Moreover, the Information Regulator of South Africa announced this week that it would investigate members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) accused of leaking the personal details of eight women allegedly gang-raped by illegal artisanal miners, or zama zamas, near Krugersdorp.
The regulator, which is accountable to the national assembly and was established in 2013 to “monitor and enforce compliance by public and private bodies” with the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia), said it would assess what measures the police had taken to safeguard the personal information of the eight women.
The women were raped during a music video film shoot on 28 July at an abandoned mine on Gauteng’s West Rand.
“The assessment will establish the circumstances of the leak and the measures that the SAPS had put in place to protect the personal information of the victims,” the regulator said.
“A responsible party has an obligation in terms of the conditions for lawful processing of personal information to secure the integrity and confidentiality of personal information in its possession by taking appropriate reasonable measures to prevent unlawful access to or processing of personal information,” it continued.
The regulator said the details of the women had been shared across media platforms.
On Tuesday, the United Statesbased
CBS network published a story about the rapes after having spoken with four of the eight victims.
Regulator Allison Tilley appealed to the public to not release the names. She said the sharing of the women’s details was “not only a breach of Popia but it is also a callous act of re-victimisation, and also a violation of the constitutional rights to privacy and human dignity”.
Meanwhile, an incident in Limpopo province suggests police officers are ignorant of the fact that the law allows them to try to find criminal suspects using the home affairs database.
Alleged rape victim Masala*, 52, told the Mail & Guardian about her “nightmarish night” in March, when an intruder, whom she knows and sees almost daily in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, sexually assaulted her in her home.
Despite fingerprints and DNA samples having been retrieved from the crime scene, the Thohoyandou police station closed the case, citing a lack of evidence.
“All leads followed up — case closed. Docket will be re-opened upon new leads,” reads part of the text message sent in June to Masala by the police.
A letter addressed to Colonel JB Maluleka, of the police complaints, response and investigation section, by Fiona Nicholson — an activist who started the Tshilidzi Trauma Centre for abuse survivors — says officers investigating Masala’s rape case were not aware of the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Act that gives them access to the database of the department of home affairs.
“As I know that your database only contains prints of existing, known criminals, or suspects, I asked why they were not going to be compared to the home affairs database, being the most comprehensive in South Africa.
“They [Thohoyandou police] were clearly amazed at my question and explained that such is not normal procedure,” Nicholson wrote.
“I pointed out to them that the Act permitting the SAPS access to all databases had been passed in 2010; they knew nothing about it.”
Section 15(b) of the Act states that “any fingerprints or photographic images”, for purposes of the “detection of crime [and] the investigation of an offence … be checked against the databases of the department of home affairs, the department of transport or any department or any department of state in the national sphere of government”.
Maluleka acknowledged receipt of Nicholson’s letter but did not say why the case had been closed without exploring all avenues of investigation.
According to Masala, in the early hours of 7 March, at about 2am, she felt a naked man’s body next to her in her bed. She did not know how the intruder had entered her home, where she lived alone.
Untold violence ensued, Masala said. The rapist aggressively assaulted her despite her pleas and prayers.
“He was vicious during the whole rape ordeal. He strangled me by shoving my head through the pillars of my single bed headrest. I kept telling him: ‘You are killing me’ but he continued to rape me repeatedly.
“I kept praying to my ancestors and to God, saying: ‘Where are you, God? Are you not seeing the pain that I am in?’ I realised after the ordeal that he had entered and left through my window, where I knew he had left fingerprints behind.”
She said that although she did not see the perpetrator’s face, she recognised his voice and body structure. She later had to deal with the terror and humiliation of seeing her rapist almost daily, because police said they could not arrest anyone or source DNA and fingerprint samples “based on hearsay”.
“I have moved back into my mother’s home because I cannot live alone anymore because of that night of horror. The police are not helping me at all because they have decided to close the case, while my rapist roams the streets,” Masala said.
“It is not comfortable to live with my mother because other relatives are there as well. And it is not nice not to return home, especially when I have a place of my own. But I don’t have a choice but to live at home because my trauma won’t allow me to live alone.”
The M&G sent questions to the Limpopo police spokesperson, Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo, who had not responded by the time of publication.