Durban – President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday that the implementation of the three new anti-gender based-violence (GBV) bills he signed last month will go a long way to ensuring successful prosecutions and protecting survivors.
The president was speaking during the State of the Nation address at the Cape Town City Hall, a first in the democratic era of the country.
In addition to strengthening the criminal justice system, he said much progress has been made in clearing up the DNA backlog processing. This can sometimes hinder the prosecution process in GBV cases.
The president said the State will be taking a more strategic approach to combat GBV in the coming year.
“The implementation of this legislation will definitely go a long way to ensuring that cases are successfully prosecuted, that survivors of gender-based violence are protected and that there are more effective deterrents in place.
“We have made significant progress in reducing the DNA backlog processing. Reducing it from 21 000 exhibits to some 58 000 at present. However, the fight against gender-based violence will never be won unless as a society we mobilise all formations and all citizens behind a sustained programme of social action,” the president said in his address.
According to the latest crime statistics from SAPS, there were 12 702 cases of sexual offences recorded from April to June 2021 and 11 964 from July to September.
Some 10 006 cases were recorded from April to June, a 72,4% increase from the same period a year before; 9 556 were recorded from July to September.
From April to June, 22 murders were rape related while from July to September, it rose to 35.
During the 2 quarters, the Inanda Police Station in Durban KwaZulu-Natal appeared consecutively in the top three stations with the most recorded sexual offence cases.
Delft police station in the Western Cape recorded 91 sexual offence cases from April to June while Temba in Gauteng recorded 82 for the second quarter.
Inanda recorded 73 rape cases from April to June and 67 from July to September. Delft had 72 and 57 cases respectively during the same period.
Political Bureau