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9 Nov 2011

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities has condemned the recent rise in attacks against women and children. This follows the death of a young Pretoria woman who was killed in a drive-by shooting, by two masked motorcyclists moments after she dropped off her five-year-old son at a crèche.

 “There seems to be a war against our most vulnerable members of society, the women and children, and this needs to stop urgently,” said chairperson of the committee, Ms Dorothy Ramodibe. According to Ms Ramodibe the justice system is too lenient when it comes to perpetrators, as rape perpetrators are often released on bail and return to kill their victims. “The life of a woman in South Africa has become so cheap and this is why people take the law in their own hands,” she said.  

Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) testified before the Committee this morning that SAPS members failed to understand the Domestic Violence Act. ICD spokesperson Moses Dlamini told the Committee that some SAPS management did not take disciplinary action against their members for not ensuring that there was a Domestic Violence Act register in every police station. The Committee said the attitudes of police officers when dealing with victims of domestic violence needed to change. “Maybe we need to have more female police officers to specifically deal with victims of violence, as most women get ridiculed by male officers when reporting incidences of rape and violence against them”, Ms Ramodibe said. 

In addition to an attitude change, Ms Ramodibe said police stations needed to be equipped with facilities that would make it easier to assist victims of violence and that their knowledge needed to be expanded. Ms Ramodibe said that campaigns like the 16 days of activism against gender violence should run throughout the year, to create permanent awareness of the scourge of violence against women. 

For enquiries please contact:
Ms Kanyisa Ndyondya
Cell: +27 83 624 0585
Tel: +27 21 403 8041
E-mail: kndyondya@parliament.gov.za

Issued by: Parliament of South Africa
9 Nov 2011

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