The Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (DAWN) will request the Office of the Public Protector to investigate allegations of corruption and unacceptable delays in building of the new Mankweng police station.
During an oversight earlier this week to the Mankweng police station, DAWN found the project, which was
awarded by the department of public works during the 2014/15 financial year, abandoned. (See photos here, here, here and here).
The station currently has no detention facilities and detainees are being transported to and from Haenertsburg or Soekmekaar and in so doing using vehicles and manpower that could have been utilised to solve or combat crime.
It is also concerning that evidence exhibits are not kept judiciously as the contractor demolished the previous evidence room.
A large generator is standing outside, unprotected against the elements.
DAWN is very concerned that there are currently no victim empowerment facilities at the police station, despite the fact that Mankweng frequently features in the top 30 stations for sexual offences.
According to the crime statistics for the Third Quarter of 2021, as released by Minister Bheki Cele on 18 February 2022, the Seshego police station is number 12 on the top 30 stations for rape.
In this quarter there was a downward trend in the reporting of sexual offences nationally, but the Seshego station showed a noticeable increase of 14.5% in reported sexual offences.
We were therefore very concerned when we found during our oversight that, although there is a victim support centre at the Seshego police station, it was under resourced and only open during office hours.
DAWN believes that the lack of availability of victim friendly services to victims of gender-based violence (GBV) not only act as a deterrent to report cases, but also induces secondary victimisation to those victims who do report their cases.
This in turn can compromise the quality of victim statements as well as the ultimate outcome of the hearings.
These examples are indicative of a government that continuously fails to protect women and children and who do not provide quality service when they are violated.
DAWN will continue to name and shame those police stations who do not meet the minimum requirements to assist victims of GBV.