People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) is not convinced the latest crime statistics on murder and rape of SA women are a true reflection of what is happening on the ground. It says the prevalence of such incidents is much higher.

Police minister Bheki Cele on Friday released crime statistics for the third quarter of 2021/2022, from October to December. They show that 902 women were murdered, murder figures continue to rise and there were 11,315 rapes.

“We are disturbed by the latest crime statistics which illustrate the high levels of violence in communities across SA and that we are dealing with a serious gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) problem and have a long way to go in addressing it,” said Powa.

“However, it’s difficult to believe these are the only people raped and murdered within this reporting period due to the high rates of GBVF and because some crimes are not reported.

“Police information management systems need to be improved to capture the accurate number of murders, domestic violence and sexual violence statistics.”

The organisation said government and civil society have taken steps to tackle GBVF, such as through the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide (NSP on GBVF) launched in 2020.

“Powa commends and applauds the NSP on GBVF and the signing into law of three GBV bills. However, more needs to be done by the police and government to deal with reported incidents of rape and murder of women.

“There needs to be proper training of police in dealing with GBVF to ensure they are able to write proper statements and do thorough investigations.”

Powa called for the police to rehabilitate officers who abuse women.

“If policemen are abusive themselves and measures aren’t taken to rehabilitate them or get them out of the policing system, it will be difficult for them to deal with cases of GBVF, which will perpetuate the problem of women abuse.

“We need to ensure that the criminal justice system provides adequate feedback on the progress of cases, that it carries out proper investigations and there is no delay in arresting perpetrators, so that perpetrators of GBV don’t feel free to continue their crimes because they believe they will get away with them.

“The criminal justice system regularly fails GBV survivors and cases often take long to finalise due to the DNA backlog, which causes more trauma for survivors. Cases are sometimes struck from the roll because of lack of evidence due to poor investigations, which means survivors don’t receive the justice they deserve.”

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