No Women’s Day relief for the countless brutalised in SA
● As SA marks Women’s Day tomorrow, there is little reason to celebrate for many women seeking protection orders from the men who abuse them.
Activists say incidents of domestic violence are increasing, despite government interventions, and are also becoming more brutal.
Yet obtaining a protection order remains a daunting challenge for battered women, who must fill in complex paperwork.
The latest police statistics show that between January and March this year, 88 women were murdered in domestic violence incidents, 457 were raped and 12,922 assaulted.
For many, the seven-page J59 form they obtain from court and must complete to secure a protection order is their only defence.
The department of justice’s (DoJ’s) latest 2019/2020 annual report states that of the 11,316 criminal domestic violence cases registered the previous year, 1,794 — or 15% — ended with a guilty verdict, a drop of 8.2% on the year before that. And of the 1,157 interim protection orders women in SA obtained in 2019/2020 — 40% up on the previous year — only 462 were ultimately granted.
In 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared gender-based violence a national crisis, and committed to “strengthen the criminal justice system, improve the legal and policy framework around sexual offences and other forms of gender-based violence, and empower women economically”, says the report.
Two new bills were introduced to “better protect victims of violent domestic relationships” and introduce stricter bail measures.
Dr Lesley Ann Foster of Masimanyane Women’s Rights International said a lot of work was done by the GBV Command Council, but the strategic plan has not yet had much effect. She said recent lockdowns sparked an increase in domestic violence and a rise in extreme brutality.
“We are seeing the worst of it in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape. In one case a woman was beheaded and her body was never found. In another case a woman was murdered in front of her 16-month-old and a two-monthold baby, with the 16-month-old found with the body,” she said.
On Tuesday morning at the Randburg magistrate’s court in Johannesburg, women queued outside for protection orders.
First in line was Jessica, 35, from Rivonia, sent to the court by the police in Morningside after reporting her assault by “my soon-tobe ex-husband”.
Despite the “victim-centred approach” the DoJ said it has adopted, Jessica said: “I arrived here on June 24 and the woman official who arrived here to help gave me the forms and said I had to come back with it all filled in the next day. She was quite rude and aggressive and questioned why I hadn’t come sooner.”
Jessica hoped her interim order would be made permanent that day, and that it would prevent her estranged husband from assaulting her or their children, aged 14 and 16.
To obtain a protection order at this court, a woman or man must arrive before noon to collect the form and have it stamped and numbered. The following day they must return with it completed correctly, in English, for a magistrate to read and decide whether to grant an interim order. If it is granted, the police serve it on the offender. The case is then postponed for the order to either be finalised or rescinded.
After Jessica in the queue was Mary, from Fourways, a mother of a nine-year-old, whose ex-boyfriend beat her. She managed to evict him from her home last month.
“But now he intimidates me. He comes to the house asking for money and gets all aggressive. The police at Douglasdale were very helpful and referred me here,” she said.
Mary first approached the court on Monday when, she said, she joined a queue of “about 30 to 40” who were faced with an unsympathetic official with no patience for those who could not speak English. “She told me to wait to get all the forms stamped and come back with everything today. I asked her, ‘What will happen if he comes back to my house tonight?’, and she just looks at me like I am stupid and says, ‘Call the police!’ ”
Gender activist and researcher Lisa Vetten said recommendations that the “incomprehensible” J59 form be simplified and made available in all languages had been made in 2001, but nothing had been done.
Behind Mary was an obviously injured Katlego, 25, of Diepsloot. She had collected her form on Monday hoping it would protect her from her former boyfriend.
“He beat me. He says he will hire people to kill me in my house. I told the police, but they didn’t arrest him. They just say I must come here to court,” she said.
Next in line was Khesiwe, 52, also of Diepsloot, who lives alone and was attacked by a neighbour who “threw stones at me, assaulted me and told me he is going to burn me in my house”.
A court official instructed her to fill out her form correctly, pointing out she had entered information in the incorrect block, and suggested she ask the security guard for help. She pleaded with the Sunday Times: “I don’t know how to do this. Please help me write this properly. My English is not good. I
don’t understand and I am very scared of being killed.”
Her fears are not unfounded. Domestic violence lawyer Brenda Madumise-Pajibo said no statistics exist for how many women are killed after obtaining protection orders, but the problem is “prevalent”. “We know of cases of women who were killed while they had a protection order in hand,” she said.
After Khesiwe sat Gertrude, 37, of Cosmo City, who said she’d applied three times for protection orders, without success. This week she was back, wincing as she moved.
“Last Friday my husband was beating me,” she said, adding that she had reported him to the police and he’d been arrested while she was admitted to hospital.
At the end of the line was Palesa, 26, of Cosmo City. Dressed smartly in corporate attire, she said she’d been to court “many times” in the past four years.
“Every time you come here hoping for a resolution and it gets postponed — no interpreter, no magistrate, court closed. And this man continues to act like he owns you and do what he wants. Today I just want them to give me my protection order,” she said.
Shalen Gajadhar, spokesperson for the department of women, children & people with disabilities, said the department had compiled a detailed account of the first full year’s implementation of the national strategic plan on gender-based violence, which Ramaphosa will deliver on Women’s Day.
“We are encouraged by the things that have been done, but a lot more needs to be done. We need better reporting mechanisms and tracking systems, with independent verification of the successes that are being claimed,” he said.