Community Safety
Whether police stations in the province are equipped to deal with victims of rape in terms of having victim friendly rooms; if not, (a) why not and (b) when will it be addressed; if so, what are the relevant details?
MINISTER OF COMMUNITY SAFETY TO REPLY
The South African Police Services informed me as follows:
All police stations in the Western Cape have Victim Friendly Rooms
(a) Not applicable
(b) Not applicable
Department of Community Safety regularly ascertain the level of compliance by SAPS Stations to the provisions of the Victim’s Charter; Service Charter for Victims of Crime in SA; Minimum Standards on Services for Victims of Crime; Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Framework; and National Instruction 2/2012.
The purpose of this National Instruction is to ensure that the rights of victims of crime are recognised and protected by members of the police service and to provide minimum standards for the establishment and maintenance of Victim Friendly Rooms (VFR’s) at SAPS Stations.
Upon recent oversight visits it was verified that the majority of VFRs at SAPS Stations are resourced and functional. However, there is a relative number of VFRs that are not fully resourced and/or fully functional. In general all VFRs are easily accessible and available 24 hours a day.
Furthermore, all SAPS Stations recently visited has a designated Victim Support Co-ordinator that is assisted by volunteers of which some have received training in Basic Victim Empowerment. However, the training of volunteers still remains a challenge at SAPS Stations in general.
Another challenge that was identified is that it is generally not possible for the smaller SAPS Stations to have at least one (1) female SAPS member on each of the four (4) shifts. This is of concern from a victim support perspective, particularly in terms of assisting the most vulnerable in our communities.
