SAPS Programmes Addressing Violence Against Children: briefing by SAPS
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Meeting report
JOINT
MONITORING COMMITTEE ON IMPROVEMENT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF
CHILDREN, YOUTH AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
27 October 2006
SAPS PROGRAMMES ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN: BRIEFING BY SAPS
Chairperson: Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC)
Documents handed out:
South African Police Service Powerpoint briefing
to JMC [available on 2 October 2006]
South African Police Service 2005/2006 Annual Report [Extracted from the Annual
Report document]: Part1
& Part2
Report of the
Public Hearing on the Right to Basic Education
Strategic Objective Grant Agreement No 674-0328 Between the United States of
America And the Republic of South Africa for Increased Access to Quality
Education and Training [email [email protected] for document]
SUMMARY
The Deputy National Commissioner and her team took members through their
programmes aimed at addressing violence against children in South Africa. The
Western Cape provided a sound example of re-integrating missing children or
children who have been living on the streets into families and communities
through social crime prevention partnerships. South African Police Services
(SAPS) had established a skills development facility in Woodstock. The families
of the children have been traced with the assistance of Social Services and
reintegration models had been developed. The main focus was on continuing and
improving interventions with regard to children being abused for purposes of
sexual exploitation, trafficking or crime. Partnerships with other service
providers were being investigated and set up. Special units had been set up,
and a number of members in the units had been trained. SAPS participated in a
Safe Schools Programme. the
Questions by members addressed the lack of trafficking laws, media reports that
violence in schools was increasing, the apparently low conviction rates on
sexual offences, particularly against minors, diversion programmes,
the setting up of the Registry to assist child protection, and statistics and
reintegration of homeless children. The Committee wished to invite the National
Prosecuting Authority and the Department of Justice to address it on some
issues raised. The Human Rights Commission would also brief the Committee early
in 2007.
.
MINUTES
Ms M Singh, Deputy National Commissioner, South African Police Service (SAPS)
highlighted the SAPS programmes aimed at addressing
violence against children in South Africa. The presentation covered programmes against child abuse and neglect, with specific
focus on homeless children and child labour. Violence
against children included sexual violence, domestic violence and drug and
alcohol abuse. The Western Cape provided a sound example of re-integrating
missing children or children who had been living on the streets into families
and communities through social crime prevention partnerships. SAPS had
established a skills development facility in Woodstock. The families of the
children had been traced with the assistance of Social Services. In Gauteng, the Sunnyside and Hillbrow
police station had provided a separate model for re-integration. The child labour action programme was led
by the Department of Labour. SAPS’s
main focus was on continuing and improving interventions with regard to
children being used by adults in committing crimes, or for commercial sexual
exploitation and child trafficking. Anti-rape Strategy Guidelines had been
compiled, and aimed an analyzing the factors that contributed to rape and mobilising partnerships with other service providers to
address contributory factors, such as environmental and social issues.
Communities were encouraged to be actively involved in preventing sexual
violence against children. Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual
Offences (FCS) units have been established.882 FCS members completed their
Investigators course and 837 completed the Detective Course. 418 SAPS members
and 32 prosecutors attended a Child Pornography workshop. SAPS provided support
to the Department of Education with the Safe School Programme,
which was started in 2000. Research had found that violence in schools is
fueled by peer pressure. Various SAPS programmes had
been established to deal with it and children were encouraged to report
bullying at schools.
Discussion
Mr A Madella (ANC)
commented that he was worried by the crime statistics. He commented that the
number of convictions indicated that that only about 10% of cases reaching the
Court were successfully prosecuted. He wanted to know what was preventing the
police from achieving a higher conviction rate, and if evidence was the
problem.
Ms J Chalmers (ANC) asked if the FCS unit was separated from the police station
or if it was integrated with the police. She commented that in some cases a
child offender was made to apologise to the victim
for the crime committed. She wanted to know what process took place when a
child had been molested.
Superintendent A Pienaar, Senior Superintendent,
SAPS, told the committee that the statistics included adults and children.
Cases were referred to the prosecutors in court. Once the docket had gone
through to the court, SAPS had no further control over it. It often happened
that a victim, having had the matter postponed on several occasions, would tell
the prosecutor that he or she wanted to withdraw the charges. This was
particularly the case with teenagers. The offender would then be acquitted
because the prosecution would be withdrawn..
Unfortunately SAPS just had to accept the decision. If the offender was a
child, the case might go to the Children’s Court, or the offender might be
placed in a diversion programme, which could include
apologizing to the victim.
The Chairperson asked that a list of the locations of all the FCS units be
provided to the Committee.
Spt Pienaar replied that
the FCS unit provided the same support as the CPU. A contact list of all the
FCS units was available on the SAPS website.
Ms H Weber (DA) enquired the success rate of the integration of street children
into families. She asked if the FCS replaced the Child Protection Unit (CPU). She
enquired if the child abuse and the older persons Registry was the same. She
asked if Child Trafficking is a problem.
Spt Pienaar stated that
according to Section 42 of Child Care Act 1983, child neglect and abuse had to
be reported to social services. The Child Protection Registry was not yet up
and running and would fall under the Department of Social Services. The problem
with child trafficking is that there was as yet no law that made it illegal.
There was currently a task team looking at the proposed legislation to criminalise child trafficking.
Mr M Moss (ANC) wanted to know what the Committee
could do to assist the SAPS with the task. He enquired how successful SAPS had
been in removing children from the street. He wanted to know what other departments
SAPS would work with, besides the Departments of Education and Social Services.
He suggested that SAPS find out more about the previous mayor’s programme to take children off the streets. He wanted to
know if it would not be possible to implement this programme
all over the country. He also asked what role the SAPS plays in removing
disabled and mentally ill people from the street.
Ms Susan Pienaar, Assistant Commissioner & Head:
Social Crime Prevention, SAPS, told members that there were examples of
specific diversion programmes for young offenders,
but all would perhaps be better institutionalized when the Children’s Act was put into
force. She commented that there had been moves to make police stations more
accessible to people with disabilities. All new police stations being built, were accessible to people in wheelchairs.
She stated that the Committee could assist precisely by continuing to ask these
types of questions. SAPS had a number of partnerships with other departments
and worked extensively with other NGOs such as Childline.
Partnerships were created with businesses in the area through the Community
Policing Forum.
Ms M Mngadi, Director: Crime Prevention, SAPS told
the committee that there was no reliable database of homeless children. The
Western Cape had implemented a system of tracking homeless children. In the
last year 74 children were reported missing in the Western Cape. By May 2006,
66 of the children reported missing had been reintegrated with families, 6 were
not found and 3 were found dead. The migration of street children from one
province to another made it difficult to track the children.
The Chairperson wanted clarity on the law regarding trafficking of children.
She enquired if the police worked with airlines to identify children who may be
trafficked. She wanted to know if all schools were included in the Safer Schools programme.
Ms P Bhengu (ANC) enquired if there was any
interaction with the Department with regard to safe transport for school
children to distant schools.
Ms S Pienaar, Assistant Commissioner, SAPS, reported
that a handbook had been developed for schools to target violence. The handbook
dealt with various issues that might lead to violence at schools. The police
could not necessarily help with transport to and from schools, but they could
raise awareness about areas that could be dangerous to learners. All provinces
formed part of the Safer Schools programme.
Mr A Madella
(ANC) commented that he recently came across a case where a gangster raped a child
repeatedly in Blue Downs. Once the matter was reported to the police, the
gangster threatened to kill the child if the charges were not withdrawn. This
threat was also reported to the police, but nothing was done about it. The
child’s aunt and the child were shot and the child subsequently died. The
investigating officer pointed out to the family that nothing could be done
about the rape charge as the complainant was no longer able to testify. He
enquired if this case could still be prosecuted.
Spt Pienaar advised that if
a person had not testified in a case and subsequently died the charges against
the accused would be withdrawn for lack of evidence, and since, according to
the Constitution, the
accused had the right to question the complainant.
he Deputy Commissioner added that in this case, the
rape charge would no longer stand, but a murder charge would be laid.
Mr M Moss (ANC) enquired if SAPS interacted with any
other Department that formed part of the Safety and Security Cluster.
Ms S Pienaar, Assistant Commissioner for SAPS replied
that the police did work with the Security Cluster
Ms J Chalmers (ANC) enquired if there had been a significant increase in child
on child violence.
Ms Weber (DA) wanted to know if there was already legislation that a charge of
rape, once laid, could not be withdrawn.
Ms P Bhengu (ANC) wanted to know if there was any
interaction with traditional leaders.
Ms S Pienaar replied that in the Eastern Cape
traditional leaders had been trained on the legal aspects of a case.
The Chairperson commented that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development should be called before
the committee to clarify some of the issues raised by the members.
Committee Business
The Chairperson reminded Members that before a decision was taken on two
reports referred to the Committee the Human Rights Commission would brief the
Committee. This had been arranged for early 2007
The meeting was adjourned.
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