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As part of tackling crimes against women, children and the elderly, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has established a total of 906 Victim Friendly Rooms to assist crime victims with counselling, taking statements and enable investigations which would result in the successful convictions of perpetrators.

Eight hundred and nineteen (819) of these Victim Friendly Rooms have already been established at police stations and 87 at other service points such as airports, railway police stations and coaches as well as at various satellite police stations; as on 30 September 2013. The Western Cape has the highest number of such facilities at a police station level with 150, followed by Gauteng with 137 and KwaZulu-Natal with 135.

This was revealed today by the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa in response to a Parliamentary question on how many functional victim support rooms have been established at each police station, province and what steps are being undertaken to ensure that the minimum standards for services to victims of crime are met at stations where no victim support rooms have been established.

“Violence against women, children and the elderly remains a sore point for our efforts of crime-reduction. The correctness of the decision we took two years ago in re-establishing the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit has begun to bear progress. In addition to the many life sentences that this unit has managed to score over the last two years, efforts of capacitating our police stations are now being speeded up.”

“In the new police stations that we build and those that are being refurbished, we ensure that there are special dedicated areas for the victims of such crimes. A working relationship with the Judiciary has also assisted our efforts because such cases are now being prioritised,” he stated.

According to the National Instruction on Victim Empowerment, NI 2 of 2012, police stations without Victim Friendly Rooms must make arrangements that allow for victims to be interviewed in private, for example by identifying one or more offices or alternate rooms like a conference room, that can be used to take statements in private or provide information to victims.

Meanwhile, Minister Mthethwa has once again reiterated that SAPS is strengthening its internal accountability mechanisms at all levels including improved internal assessments through the National Inspectorate and Internal Audit. He said the National Commissioner of Police is now also focusing on improving accountability, leadership skills and development within SAPS.

This was in relation to another Parliamentary question on how many disciplinary cases are outstanding against members of the SAPS. In addition, how long have these cases been on-going and whether the persons who are being charged have been suspended, if so, for how long as well as whether the specified persons are still receiving their salaries.

The Minister revealed that there are currently 283 disciplinary cases outstanding. The nature of these cases include failure to comply with, or contravening an Act, Regulation of Legal Obligation, intentional or negligent damages and or causing loss of State property, endangering the lives of others by disregarding safety rules or regulations, to mention but a few.

“Each case is determined on its own merits based on amongst other things the evidential material on hand, the number of witnesses and their availability; and the complexity will determine the finalisation of each individual case. It is therefore difficult to predict the conclusion date of these cases.”

He added that some of the employees are currently suspended pending the investigations. The suspension of an employee may only be considered if the continuation of the employee’s employment is likely to result in him or her continuing with or committing further misconduct.

It needs to be further noted that in line with the labour laws of our country, if the continuation of an employee’s employment may negatively impact on the investigation or an employee will be in a position to hide, destroy or embezzle the evidence if his or her employment is continued, then a suspension may be considered. If these factors are not present, there is no reason to suspend an employee since suspension is a precautionary measure.

Lastly, the Minister informed Parliament that in order to expedite some of the investigations, the SAPS involves or utilises some of the nongovernmental institutions, consultants and or forensic companies to perform any investigative work. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation has, for example, in the past utilised the service of environmental study institutions, transcription service providers, hand writing analyst company, cellular phone analysis and mapping service providers, forensic auditors as well as chartered accountants.

The SAPS does not have experts in its employ who can render services of this nature in order to gather evidential material for court purposes, hence the need to procure the services of these experts. He emphasised that such an approach is not a peculiar practice as many police departments worldwide follow such models.

“In dealing with vehicle theft, SAPS does not have the capability to identify specific identification features on specific vehicles and therefore experts attached to the manufacturers of the certain type of vehicle are called in to assist with the identification of stolen motor vehicles or stolen motor vehicle parts.”

Going forward, the Minister stated that SAPS is considering entering into cooperative partnerships with various vehicle companies where, collectively, there could be a skills development and expertise-sharing in tackling this challenge; in a more cost effective manner.