Atteridgeville police, court urged to take GBV cases seriously
"Victims are always scared of reporting because nothing is done."
Kasi Ladies and several other organisations marched to the Atteridgeville police station on Friday, to raise awareness about gender-based violence in the community.
The group demanded that the police prioritise these cases as they have seen a lot of women and children in their community die at the hands of those who were supposed to protect them.
The group also demanded that two more police stations be built in Atteridgeville to help deal with crime in the area as one police station was not enough.
One of the community leaders who participated in the march, Samuel Masilela, said “a lot of GBV cases” were reported at the police station but nothing seemed to be happening with those cases.
“Some of these cases are in court. Victims are always scared of reporting because nothing is done. We are demanding the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Police to come and explain to the community what is happening with these cases.
“Women are suffering a lot and there are so many women I can count who have lost their lives through GBV. Some of the perpetrators are even out on free bail.”
Masilela said he was not surprised by the small turnout of women who joined the march as most of them “had lost hope”.
“Most of them lost hope with this police station and the courts. When they come here to lodge complaints, no one helps them. Most of them come to us to express how they have been treated here.
“In February, we met with the MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko, the station commander, and other police officers to address all the issues we have. Two months after the meeting, things seemed to have improved but now they seem to be the way they were before.”
Two weeks ago, a civil rights organisation and community members disrupted services at the police station and the Atteridgeville magistrate’s court, demanding that management address their issues centred mostly on service delivery by the court and police station.
The group threatened that should their demands not be met, they would mobilise more members of the community to shut down the police station and court entirely, saying they did not see the reason why these should be allowed to operate.
Atteridgeville police spokesperson Mapula Rikhotso said police have been prioritising GBV.
“A van is immediately dispatched when a woman comes and opens a case, especially when they know the perpetrator. We do not wait for 24 hours. We do it immediately and that is the standing station order. Whenever a woman has been violated in any way, we immediately stand up and go and arrest the suspect.”
Rikhotso said they would be looking at the demands made in the memorandum and respond in seven days.
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