The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Democratic Alliance (DA) have labelled the South African Police Service (SAPS) as a failure. This comes after the police close 5.4 million unresolved dockets from 2018.
The closed cases include aggravated robbery, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, murder, attempted murder, rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
Leigh-Ann Mathys, EFF spokesperson, said it was highly concerning that 68.75% of the stolen dockets from SAPS stations were of open cases against rape and sexual assault in Limpopo.
Internal corruption plagues police
She said this highlights corruption that was faced in law enforcement agencies and claimed that the closure of these unresolved cases has unleashed 61 740 rapists back into communities.
Mathys said these endangered lives as some of the alleged rapists would possibly roam the streets to become serial rapists knowing that they would not account for past offences and possibly future offences.
“This is an outright betrayal of justice. Rape victims and survivors in South Africa are living in terror, afraid to report the violence they endure because they know the system is rigged against them,” said Mathys.
“They already fear being dismissed, humiliated, or even targeted by the very same authorities meant to protect them, as so often happens when they report to the police. This systematic failure, where victims’ voices are silenced, serves only to embolden perpetrators and perpetuate the cycle of violence,” she added.
Lisa Schickerling, DA deputy spokesperson on police, said breaking down the numbers showed that at least 974 rape and sexual assault cases were being dropped by the police every month and 32 rape and sexual assault victims never find justice on a daily.
“This is a deplorable state of affairs that requires urgent intervention from both the Minister and SAPS management to ensure that cases against women are treated with the seriousness and care that they deserve,” said Shickerling.
“The DA will write to the chairperson of the portfolio committee on police to request that the minister, the national commissioner, and the Limpopo provincial commissioner be brought before the committee to discuss these matters and to present to the committee their plans to remedy these critical failures within the SAPS,” she added.
