The Eastern Cape has emerged as the leading province with cases of gender-based violence (GBV).

This is according to professor Naheema Abrahams from the South African Medical Research Council. She was speaking on day one of the Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in Midrand.

Abrahams said while cases of femicide had decreased since 2017, the caseload for the police was still very high.

“The caseload with the police has also increased. We hope they’ve increased the way they do investigations. The decline in femicide is a good story, however, our numbers are still high.

“The Eastern Cape unfortunately is our province that has more than twice the national rate. About 22,000 women were killed in 2017 compared to 14,000 in KwaZulu-Natal. Limpopo doesn’t have as many cases but the number is still higher than the global average,” she said.

Abrahams said there had also been anecdotal evidence, which showed the murder of women post 2017 had increase, similarly to that of children compared to 2021.

“There’s no complacency in femicide. We’re going backwards,” she said.

A presentation by acting national police commissioner Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili showed that sexual offences had increased from 46,214 during the 2020/21 financial year to 52,694 during the 2021/22 financial year.

He said the department had allocated R1.3bn on baseline activities related to GBV.

Not everyone present was impressed with the presentations given by the SAPS or by police minister Bheki Cele’s speech.

Activist Sihle Zibisi from the Kwanele Foundation accused Cele and his department of failing to provide counselling for police officers, adding that they failed to successfully assist victims and that they themselves were perpetrators of GBV.

“Behind the SAPS uniform is a man. Minister, you’re failing to give the police counselling; that’s why when we go to open cases they can’t help us,” she said.

Responding to that, Cele said cases against members of SAPS were investigated, which at times resulted in successful prosecutions.

“You’ll remember that the police are policed by Ipid [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] and also policed by the secretariat and internal structures such as ACU [anti-corruption unit] that looks at corruption within the police. Police face double trouble, especially female officers. Some are abused by colleagues within their own organisation and some abuse the people they protect.

“Every month within the ministry we receive a list from Ipid with names of members meant to be disciplined. Every month we receive a list of names that are referred to the NPA meant for prosecution, hence we have police sentenced to long sentences.

“As we speak now, over the last three months, 11 members of SAPS were sentenced to long sentences because they themselves abused the people they were meant to protect,” he said.