KZN legislature demands police oversight after East Rand killings

A debate in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature on Thursday turned on a single demand: stop telling women to move differently and start making police stations answer for how they handle gender-based violence cases.

Democratic Alliance Member of the Legislature Hannah Lidgett used her time in the house to press for oversight visits to police stations, saying members had to satisfy themselves that gender-based violence and femicide dockets are treated seriously. She said the advice women routinely receive, to restrict where they go and when, does not address the problem while perpetrators remain free.

Speaking during the debate, Lidgett said the responsibility sat with the men and women in the chamber.

“This is a call to action to this house. You are leaders and you need to stand up and take action against gender-based violence and femicide that is happening on a daily basis in our country.”

She told members the problem was not confined to Gauteng, where the bodies of murdered women have been found on Johannesburg’s East Rand in recent weeks, and that KwaZulu-Natal carries its own burden.

“This is not happening only in Kempton Park, this is happening on our doorstep here in KZN. We have the rape capital of the country here in KwaZulu-Natal. So, it cannot be business as usual.”

What the province is being asked to do

The proposal on the table is procedural rather than dramatic. Members of the legislature have standing to conduct oversight visits at police stations, examine how cases are registered, and ask station commanders what happens to a docket after a complaint is laid. Lidgett’s argument is that the gap between a report and a prosecution is where cases quietly die, and that only members physically present at stations can see it.

She called on both men and women across the house to take a public stand against violence directed at women, framing the killings as a matter for the legislature rather than for the police alone.

The debate follows the discovery of the bodies of murdered women in Johannesburg’s East Rand, which has driven alarm and outrage across the country and pushed the subject back onto provincial agendas.

Where the state’s response stands

South Africa’s police service maintains family violence, child protection and sexual offences units specifically for these cases, and the National Prosecuting Authority runs dedicated sexual offences courts in several provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal. The question the legislature is now putting to itself is whether those structures are receiving cases early enough and whether station-level handling is consistent.

KwaZulu-Natal’s own reporting rate has long been among the heaviest in the country, which is why the province’s members are being asked to look at their own stations rather than at Gauteng’s.

What the debate did not produce on Thursday was a resolution, a date for the first oversight visit, or a named list of stations. Lidgett’s call stands as a proposal to the house, and it is the house that must decide whether to act on it.

For women in KwaZulu-Natal who have laid complaints, the practical effect of a legislature that follows through would be visible at the counter: a case number that leads somewhere, an investigating officer who makes contact, and a docket that reaches court. That is the standard the debate set, and the next sitting is where members will show whether they intend to meet it.

Source: SABC News (website), Members of the KZN legislature denounce the killing of women