Review of implementation of Sexual Offences Act needed to fight rape and sexual violence

Note to editors: the following speech was delivered by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP today at Sharpeville in commemoration of Human Rights Day.

Sharpeville will always represent the victory of freedom and dignity over oppression and humiliation. 

As we gather here at the African Methodist Episcopal Church, we remember the heroes of Sharpeville, as well as the triumph of the human spirit. 

They gave our generation an example of how to overcome despair with strength.

Today, fellow democrats, is a celebration of South Africa, not a political party.

But in 2013, we must admit that something has gone badly wrong. 

Rape and sexual violence against women, children and, increasingly, men, has led to a public outpouring of anger and grief across the country. 

The recent brutal rape, mutilation and murder of Anene Booysen revealed the scars of a deeply broken society. But we are beginning to forget this heinous crime already. 

I can tell you one thing for certain - the family of Anene Booysen will never forget. 

Nor will the family of 8 year old grade 3 pupil, Nonjabulo Sabelo, from Mzwilili Junior Primary School in Umlazi. Nonjabulo was raped, her eyes were gouged out and she was murdered.

The family of Thandiswa Qubuda from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape will never forget.  Their child was publicly beaten and gang raped. She was found in a coma and has since passed away.

Nor will the family of the two year old baby in Pulaneng Village in Limpopo who was allegedly raped by a close friend of her father. She will bear the scars of this horror for the rest of her life.

The families of the thousands of women and children who are raped every four minutes in South Africa will never forget. And neither should we.

We simply cannot allow our anger to disappear or simply return to business as usual. It must be transformed into action, and action now. 

We must fight this scourge of violence against our people with the same level of determination as we did the fight against Apartheid. We must not stop until every woman is free from fear and oppression; free to live a life that she chooses, in a society in which her human rights are protected.

Former President, Nelson Mandela taught us how to break the deadly cycle of violent abuse.

Madiba said that freedom from abuse can only be accomplished by setting free the abuser as well as the abused.

Just as uTata did, we need to speak to one another so that we can heal what is broken in our society. 

The surge in rape and sexual violence against women is a national emergency. And it demands the same kind of accountability and telling of truths that President Mandela promoted. 

I have written to all political parties in Parliament, and to the Speaker of the National Assembly, and asked Parliament to set up a special committee in Parliament to consider doing just this. This committee would go around the country and speak to South Africans about their experiences, and ask what they think needs to be done to address the wave of violent crime and sexual abuse of women and children, which is gripping our nation.

What was Parliament's response? They said that we should rather ask the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities to deal with this matter, so that we do not "duplicate resources".

Yet Parliament had no problem finding R1.2 million to fund a special prayer meeting for President Jacob Zuma before his bid for re-election at Mangaung.

The reality is that the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities is as dysfunctional as the department and the minister it is meant to oversee. It has hardly met this year, and it has done little to assist vulnerable communities in South Africa.

In fact, its members have spent more time attending conferences in New York than attending to the poor communities of Umlazi, and Grahamstown and Pulaneng Village.

No. I will not accept this. I cannot accept this.

South Africa needs its Parliament to fight for the rights of those who face the most heart-wrenching forms of violence each and every day. And we will fight on their behalf to make sure this happens.

It is also for this reason that the DA will be calling for a comprehensive review of the Sexual Offences Act. 

This law, which was passed by Parliament in 2007, can go a long way towards fighting sexual violence in South Africa. But the reality is that it is not being properly implemented.

Less than 2% of the police service is trained in the First Responders to Sexual Offences Learning Programme.

Only 57% of police stations can locate their copy of the Sexual Offences Act. And only 51% had the regulations on hand.

Only 32% of police stations had the required documentation required by the Sexual Offences Act.

Rape kits are not effectively distributed and many Police stations do not have access to them.

These issues need to be urgently addressed and a review must be undertaken to determine where this is going wrong - and then to get it right.

Members of Parliament must play their role in ensuring this happens. 

It is for this reason that I will expect all DA MPs to embark on an oversight mission to monitor the local police stations located in their constituencies. They will be checking to ensure the Sexual Offences Act and Domestic Violence Act are being properly implemented at police stations. 

We cannot pass our responsibilities on. 

We must all know, as the brave men and women of Sharpeville knew, as uMama Mampinga Ndamane knows, that we are not free - men or women - when any South African is a victim of inhumane and horrific violence. 

Ensuring that the human rights of all South Africans are respected is a fight that we must have every day. The horror at Marikana in August last year, where 34 South Africans were gunned down by the South African Police Service, shows us that we can never take our hard won freedoms for granted.

Marikana, like Sharpeville, must be a wake-up call to South Africans that ours is a struggle that continues.

That is why we need nothing less than an unrelenting campaign against gender violence by the government and Parliament.

And if we truly honour those who died at Sharpeville, then we must fight injustice and human-rights abuses whenever and wherever they appear.

I am sending an unequivocal message to my colleagues in Parliament today. I am not giving up this fight.

It continues every day in every home in this country.

You mustn't forget it either.

Together we can win this war for women's rights and women's freedom and create a society in which all South Africans are safe. A South Africa in which all are truly free.

Thank you.

Issued by the DA, March 21 2013

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