A reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed that the police service failed to execute 99% of warrants for arrest, granted in terms Domestic Violence Act.
This is extremely disturbing considering the extremely high level of gender violence in our country.
Domestic violence is defined broadly as physical, sexual, emotion, verbal and/or psychological abuse. It also includes harassment and stalking.
Since the 2015/16 financial year, out of 224 930 warrants issued, a mere 1 624 arrests were made.
This means that a tiny 0.72% of those warrants were carried out.
If a complainant can show that an already granted protection order has been violated and the perpetrator has continued to threaten or commit violence then, according to Section 8(4) of the Domestic Violence Act, “a complainant may hand the warrant of arrest together with an affidavit…to any member of the South African Police Service”.
It is then up the SAPS officer to investigate if “the complainant may suffer imminent harm as a result of the alleged breach of the protection order” and if so, the SAPS must make an arrest.
Given that a woman is murdered every eight hours in South Africa, it seems almost impossible that in 99% of these cases, the SAPS would be able to conclude that no imminent danger exists.
It has now become clear that, not only do the SAPS consistently fail to keep South Africans safe, it now seems possible that they are actively contributing to the massively high rate of gender violence.
This may be, in no small part, due to the severe under-resourcing, under-staffing, under-training, and under-equipping of our police service.
Yet, the fact remains that the Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula, must answer for these shocking statistics that provide reasons for why so many women in South Africa rightly fear for their lives on a daily basis.