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Family violence unit for Kempton Park extremely understocked

This situation is unacceptable and shows the lack of concern by the government.

The Family Violence, Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) for Kempton Park, which is situated in Tembisa, is chronically under-resourced.

This was revealed through a Parliamentary reply, said Michael Waters MP, DA deputy chief whip in the National Assembly and Lethabong constituency head.

According to him, the FCS unit has a shortage of 500 rape kits, 500 DNA collection kits, 10 recording equipment for interviewing, three vehicles, five two-way radios and two laptops.

“This situation is unacceptable and shows the lack of concern by the government for the very units that investigate the rape and murder of children and women of our country are brought to book. Last year alone 39 828 rapes were reported and of these, a horrific 19 017 (41 per cent) were child rapes,” Waters said.

“It cannot be that the very units established to bring perpetrators to book do not have the basic equipment such as rape kits. What this means is that vital evidence needed to convict people will be lost forever. It is no wonder that as far as child rapes are concerned that only one in three results in a conviction.

“If we are to combat this scourge, we need political commitment which will ensure we back up the rhetoric of fighting gender violence through the desperately needed funding.”

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