SOUTH AFRICA ADOPTS NEW WEAPON IN THE BATTLE

UNCLAS PRETORIA 000059 DEPT FOR AF/S MARBURG AND INL FOR LSMALLS AND SSNYDER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KCRM SF PHUM KWMN SOCI PREL SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA ADOPTS NEW WEAPON IN THE BATTLE AGAINST SEX CRIME ¶1. Summary: South Africa's cabinet recently passed a DNA Bill that will allow police officials to collect DNA from suspects of crimes, particularly, suspects of rapes and murders. This is a step in the right direction toward combating Sexual Offenses, but manpower and training still continue to be an issue. South Africa Police Services is increasing its overall force strength in preparation for the 2010 World Cup, but much more work is needed to develop an adequate force of trained sexual offense investigators. End summary. -------------- South Africa Cabinet Approves the DNA Bill -------------- ¶2. South Africa's cabinet recently approved a new DNA bill that, with final adoption (expected in the next session of Parliament) will allow investigating police officers to take a mouth swab of saliva or draw blood from the finger tip from an individual suspected of rape. Hitherto, only a physician could conduct a DNA test procedure, a restriction which often results in the absence of physical evidence linking suspects to sex crimes. Briefing the press on the law, a Justice Ministry spokesperson indicated the law, when finalized, would also expand the fingerprint-taking powers of the police by making it compulsory for convicts and suspects to be printed. The police would be linked electronically with the HANIS system of the Department of Home Affairs which has the fingerprints of 31 million citizens and 2.5 million foreigners on record as well as the Department of Transports eNaTIS system where a further 6 million thumb prints are located. The Justice Ministry hopes this will lead to a significant increase in suspect to crime scene matches. -------------- South Africa's Low Rape Conviction Rate -------------- ¶3. Over 95% of rape suspects in South Africa walk free. Of every 25 men accused of rape, 24 are released. South Africa, Tshwaranang Legal Resources and Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Agency, recently conducted the largest ever rape study which exposed how badly police and justice authorities are handling reported rape cases. This study, supported by the South African Police Services (SAPS), has tracked 2068 rape cases reported in seventy Gauteng Police Stations through the justice system from 2003 to present. ¶4. The Tracking Justice Study findings are as follow: -------------- Only 4.1% of reported rape cases resulted in a conviction -------------- One out of every 10 child rape cases reported to the police resulted in a conviction -------------- Half of all reported cases resulted in arrests, but only 42.8% were charged in court. -------------- One in five reported rapes resulted in a trial. -------------- One in three alleged rapists were granted bail. -------------- Of the 34 convicted rapists eligible for a life sentence, only four received a life sentence. -------------- More than a third of reported rape victims were under the age of 17, with children under the age of 7 making 14.6% of all victims. -------------- More than a third of alleged rape victims withdraw their cases -------------- The average number of attempts made by police to contact the alleged victim before declaring the victim alleged or untraceable was three times. In some cases no effort was made. -------------- Reports containing the results of DNA test were available only in 2% of rape dockets, despite sexual assault evidence collection kits being collected in 67% of cases and sent to the police's laboratory for testing in 51% of the cases. -------------- A blood sample from the suspect is taken in only 8.2% of cases. -------------- In more than half of all rape dockets, the police official in charge had to repeatedly be urged to arrest the rape suspect. In nearly a third of such cases, the suspect disappeared by the time the police official involved attempted to arrest. -------------- While Police close nine out of every 20 reported rape cases largely because the alleged perpetrator could not be identified or located, the study found that over three quarters of all victims statements contained no description of the alleged rapist. ¶5. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe recently admitted under oath that "South Africa's Justice system is failing its child rape victims. Instead of having made vast progress since 2000, dedicated (child rape) courts have declined in numbers; South Africa Police Services (SAPS) Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offenses Units have been redeployed; trained forensic social workers employed by the police have become scarce; some magistrates have been obstructive; the system of district surgeons was abolished (giving rise to a loss of expertise); and the need for training of all remains with language barriers exacerbating every identified issue". -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. As senior officials admit the system is failing rape survivors and begin to acknowledge that the consequences of this failure to society are dire, pressure is mounting to build an effective criminal justice response to South Africa's sexual violence epidemic. South Africa's new DNA law will go a long way in assisting the criminal justice system in identification and prosecution of rape suspects. The fingerprint data bank will provide an added advantage to law enforcement in the detection of suspect of domestic and foreign. The Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative (WJEI) program has been active in bridging the training gap to Sexual Offenses Investigating Officers and is responsible for the training over 360 Sex Crime Investigators and Supervisors. The WJEI Team in SA is also addressing issues around magistrate training in order to ensure that the South African criminal justice system will be able to make full use of the tools the new law will provide to curb sexual violence. BOST