16 Aug 2021

The Department of Gender Affairs is working to ensure that cases of Gender Based Violence do not fall through the cracks but are solved on time and accordingly.

The department on Friday brought together members of the Goodhope Gender Committee and other stakeholders who alluded to gaps in the system that hindered prosecution of perpetrators.

Principal gender officer-Policy Division, Ms Rona Malema said the workshop sought to enable the committee to address that which had been hindering them to carry out their duties diligently.

She said there was little coherence between stakeholders such as the district gender office, law enforcement and social workers.

Such, Ms Malema said, was the reason cases of gender based violence often ended up not being solved on time or being solved at all.

She said the gender committee should be in a position to at least enquire from other stakeholders about the progress of cases, something which was not happening at the moment.

Attendees concurred that GBV cases took long to be prosecuted, giving perpetrators enough time to sometimes convince parents and even the victim to conceal evidence.

Regarding cases of child molestation, it was stated that some parents were enticed with money and goodies at the expense of the child’s justice.

Superintendent Batshwari Gaobatlelwe said at times delays were due the time taken to avail scientific evidence, with the shortest time for DNA results being three months.

He said in most cases parents were an obstacle because they refused to come forward with evidence, adding some could even refuse to avail a birth certificate to ascertain the victim’s age.

He pleaded with parents and the community to teach children early on not to engage in sexual acts and to always report to either social workers or the police anything inappropriate. ENDS