Kwa-Thema marchers tell SAPS to explain nine women's deaths in Ekurhuleni

Residents of Kwa-Thema in Ekurhuleni marched through the township on Thursday to demand answers from the South African Police Service and the Department of Social Development after the bodies of nine women were found in the region in less than two months.

Marchers carried their demand to the police station that serves the area, saying that reported cases of gender-based violence are not being investigated, that perpetrators are not being prosecuted and that victims are not receiving support. SABC News reported the march and the demands made at it.

What the organisers say

A protester at the march said the failures run from the station commander’s office to the detectives and on to the provincial departments that are supposed to support victims.

“Law enforcement agencies are also not doing their job here in the City of Ekurhuleni. SAPS is not doing its job. The detectives here, the station commanders, are not doing their job. There are many reported cases of gender-based violence here in this particular police station,” the protester said.

The same speaker asked why investigations are delayed, why perpetrators are not being prosecuted and why victims of gender-based violence are not given justice by the police or by the Department of Social Development.

Nine deaths, no confirmed link

Police have not established a confirmed link between the nine deaths, and are investigating whether any connections exist between them. That is the position the service has taken publicly, and it is the position the marchers want tested case by case.

The nine deaths were recorded in the Ekurhuleni region over a period of under two months. Each case has its own docket, its own investigating officer and its own family waiting on an answer, which is why the marchers pressed the station level rather than the national one.

The law, and who enforces it

Gender-based violence and femicide are crimes under South African law. Murder, assault, rape and intimidation are prosecuted under the common law and under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act. The duty to investigate rests with the South African Police Service, and the duty to prosecute rests with the National Prosecuting Authority. No community, group or individual may take that work into their own hands.

What the marchers are asking for is that the institutions do the work the law already assigns to them, and that the provincial Department of Social Development place counsellors and support where victims can reach them.

The Department of Social Development runs a 24 hour command centre on 0800 428 428, and victims can also be reached through the 112 emergency line or the nearest police station. Those channels exist. Whether they are staffed, and whether a victim in Kwa-Thema can reach one at night, is exactly the question the march put on the table.

What the state has done, and what is still open

Ekurhuleni has seen a sustained police and provincial response to gender-based violence in recent years, including dedicated family violence, child protection and sexual offences units and a provincial task team structure that takes over where a local station is overwhelmed. Those structures are the reason the marchers marched to the station and not past it: the capacity exists on paper, and the demand is that it be used on these nine dockets.

The question the community has put to SAPS Ekurhuleni is a fair one and it is a question, not a verdict. Has a task team been assigned to review the nine deaths together, and if so, under whose command? How many of the reported gender-based violence cases at this station are older than six months without an arrest, and what is the reason recorded on each docket?

The Enquirer has asked SAPS Ekurhuleni and the Gauteng Department of Social Development for the number of cases under investigation at the Kwa-Thema station, the number of arrests made and the support currently deployed to victims in the township.

The march ended with a memorandum handed to the station, and the community has said it will return. The next step is the police’s answer, in writing, on the nine dockets and on the case backlog the marchers named.

Source: SABC News (website), Kwa-Thema residents demand action from police to curb scourge of GBV