A recent parliamentary reply indicated that 59 of the 2,057 SAPS officers in the Western Cape that were charged with violent misconduct since 2012 were charged with sexual assault.
According to a statement by the Democratic Alliance’s MPL Gillion Bosman, the breakdown of the disciplinary actions per offence is inconsistent, as the reply from SAPS indicates that all 59 officers faced disciplinary action, but later states that four of these officers had “no steps taken” against them.
” I have submitted further questions to SAPS via parliament to ascertain how these four officers were indeed disciplined with no steps taken against them, and more importantly, why there was no action taken in this regard,” Bosman said.
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Bosman said the other notable facts arising from this reply indicated that 16 of these officers were dismissed, 16 were found not guilty, 8 resigned and complaints against 7 officers were withdrawn.
“This, however, does not account for the four officers who had no disciplinary proceedings instituted against them. SAPS stipulated that their “consequence management” serves to prevent police officers from engaging in sexual misconduct, which is vague, and obviously ineffective considering the facts,” Bosman expressed.
She mentioned further that between the 59 officers charged with sexual assault since 2012, and the current DNA case backlog of over 27 000 specimens related to sexual offences, conditions for women in our country remain severe.
“The vagueness and inconsistencies in this parliamentary reply raise questions about SAPS’s ambivalence to the serious issues of Gender-Based Violence and sexual offences.
“It is entirely unacceptable to have a situation where officers are either lightly reprimanded or face no consequences at all for perpetrating heinous acts against women in our province,” Bosman reiterated.
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Bosman added that the National Government has failed to enforce discipline within the police force, resulting in a situation where women cannot trust the people sworn to protect them.
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