The Commission for Gender Equality is once again dismayed to receive yet another shocking report of brutal gender based violence against a woman, and the alleged failure by law enforcement and emergency service officials to provide vital assistance to the fatally wounded victim.
It came to the attention of the Commission that on Friday, 18th November, a motorist driving on the N12 in the Ekurhuleni area, witnessed a violent attack on a woman allegedly by the woman’s husband.
The woman was left for dead on the side of the busy N12 high way.
Media reports on this incident indicate that the motorist who witnessed the attack made desperate calls to the South African Police Services emergency service line (101110 and also to the MTN C emergency services line. It is reported that both the SAPS and MTN emergency services failed to respond with the necessary urgency to provide support services to the victim.
If this is true, the Commission finds this an outrageous and callous dereliction of duty on the part of the emergency and law enforcement services in failing to respond humanely to the plight of the victim of this brutal attack. This is especially reprehensible and inexcusable coming on the eve of the country’s national campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.
The Commission has in the past repeatedly warned that in general, law enforcement agencies, particularly the SAPS, are generally hopelessly ill-prepared to respond effectively and humanely to cases of gender based violence, and therefore continue to provide shockingly inadequate services in this regard.
This incident is yet another deplorable but not surprising example of this lack of preparedness on the part of our law enforcement agencies.
We therefore call upon the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, the Ekurhuleni MMC for Safety, IPID and other relevant state institutions to carry out the necessary investigations to find out the reasons for such outrageous dereliction of duty by the responsible local Police Station in charge of providing protection services to citizens in the area where the incident occurred.
The Commission has also instructed its Legal Department to undertake an urgent investigation into the incident, working closely with IPID, the Gauteng Department of Community Safety and the relevant MMC from Ekurhuleni Metro, to identify the SAPS officers who allegedly failed in their duty to care for the victim of brutal gender based violence.
The CGE will follow developments in this case closely, and continue to monitor the way relevant state institutions handle this and other similar cases of alleged gender based violence to ensure that the law takes due course.
We urge members of the public who have knowledge of and information on acts of gender based violence and abuse to call our Toll Free Number 0800 007 709 to report such cases.
Contact person:
Javu Baloyi
Cell: 083 579 3306
