The Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Mr John Jeffery, MP, has called all the community formations and the members of the public to work with government in fighting crime, especially sexual violence against vulnerable groups, adding that the current levels of sexual violence are unacceptable.
He made this call during his address at the sixth Sexual Offences Indaba, organised by National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) at Emperor’s Palace this morning, 28 July
“Despite many initiatives, interventions and izindaba on sexual offences, we are here today because there is still a problem, both in terms of the numbers of sexual offences being committed in our country and the difficulties in bringing the perpetrators to book. We are here today to take a cold, hard look at our society and to evaluate the strategies that we have been following to deal with sexual offences,” he said.
Deputy Minister Jeffery encouraged the victims, families and members of the community to report incidents of sexual violence to the authorities as it will help government to deal with this scourge and bring perpetrators to book. He added that in most cases the perpetrators of sexual violence are known to, or related, to the victims.
“At the heart of the problem is the need to prevent stereotyping and stigmatisation. This is but one of the many issues that I hope this Indaba will address,” he emphasised.
This two day Indaba is aimed at creating a platform whereby role players may collaborately support the South Africa government in realising the constitutional mandate to protect its people by specifically and holistically responding to the high levels of sexual offences.
Furthermore, he challenged all the role players to look at behavioural and societal change, the reasons for high levels of sexual violence in our society today and how to address these issues.
“We are here today to take a cold, hard look at our society and to evaluate the strategies that we have been following to deal with sexual offences. It is not only about having the laws on the statute book, it is about the full and effective implementation thereof and the provision of quality services and care to survivors of sexual violence,” Jeffery added.
Above all, the Deputy Minister outlined the plans of the department in dealing with this scourge of sexual violence against the vulnerable groups.
According to Deputy Minister, as part of the interventions to provide improved services, the department will, n 2014/15, establish 12 sexual offences courts and the in the 2015/16 financial year, further 23 courts will be established. The long-term plan is to establish 106 sexual offences courts over a period of 10 years.
“Through sexual offences courts, we are able to provide specialised victim-support services, improve the effectiveness of witnesses in court, reduce the turnaround time in the finalisation of sexual offences matters, and improve conviction rates,” he concluded.
Enquiries:
Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga, Spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Correctional Services
Cell: 083 641 8141
E-mail: Mediaenquiries@justice.gov.za
