GBV and SAPS

Does SAPS assist the reporting and prosecution of perpetrators of GBV? Apparently they do the opposite. A young woman of my acquaintance was assaulted by a male colleague at work. She went to the police station to lay a charge of assault and to get an interim protection order. The police opened a case and assured her the man would be served and arrested the next day. On enquiries from her mother for several days after, it eventually came to light that the police was having difficulty in locating the man and that they would serve him at his disciplinary hearing at work. They failed to arrive and effect such while the young woman was on the same premises as the perpetrator. The young woman is informed by her place of employ - Zone Fitness - that the man had brought a charge of assault against her, and that he was being transfered to another branch of the same company, down the road. The police contacts the young woman the following Monday to ask her to come in to 'sign something about her case'. On her arrival she is fingerprinted and charged with common assault and notified to appear in court this coming Wednesday, since her case and that of the man is now merged into one appearance. Distraught, her mother contacts the police - on numerous, fruitless occasions, to find out whether the man had been served with the interdict and notified of the charges yet. The police were having great difficulty in accomplishing this. Eventually, after seven anxious weeks, the police informs the mother that the interdict had been served on him in Greenpoint. In effect, the victim was lied to, fingerprinted, arrested and charged, and the perpetrator was eventually served at his convenience. And the police behaving for all the world exactly like the young woman's place of employ - nobody seemingly too bothered about a woman being assaulted at work for insisting on compliance with company rules, and those for combating the Pandemic. After all, what seems to be the fuss about a couple of punches to the face of a woman that you think of 'as family' SAPS really is sick

#GBV #SAPS