Statement by Nicholas Gotsell MP – DA NCOP Member on Security & Justice:
The DA has lodged a formal Standing Order 101 complaint against Western Cape Provincial Commissioner Lt. Genl. Thembisile Patekile and Provincial Supply Chain Head Maj. Genl. Preston Voskuil, following their apparent failure to address the rape kit crisis in the Western Cape and serious concerns regarding the handling of criminally convicted SAPS members. The complaint will be lodged with the Acting National Commissioner for Police with a request that the investigation be assigned to investigators outside the Western Cape command structure.
Two weeks after DA oversight visits revealed that multiple Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units had no D7 rape kits for child victims and critically low stocks of D1 kits for adults, the offices of both Patekile and Voskuil remain silent.
Their silence is as deafening as the silence experienced daily by victims of rape and child rape across our communities.
This failure is particularly alarming during National Child Protection Week. Without these kits, vital forensic evidence cannot be collected properly, investigations are compromised and rapists cannot be removed from our communities. In communities such as Zwelethemba in Worcester, where oversight revealed that up to three or four child rapes occurred per week until recently, such failures are simply unacceptable.
The complaint further requests an investigation into what appears to be the failure to implement Regulation 5(3)(dd) of the SAPS Discipline Regulations in relation to at least 164 criminal convictions linked to SAPS members in the Western Cape. The regulation exists specifically to determine whether a convicted SAPS member should remain in the Service.
Instead, it appears that these convictions were never properly investigated and none of the members suspended, allowing members convicted of offences including murder, business robbery, fraud, assault and drunk driving to remain in SAPS and continue serving in our communities.
Whether through neglect, incompetence or a failure of oversight, this all occurred under the watch of Lt Gen Patekile and Maj Gen Voskuil.
The DA has never been silent when it comes to protecting women, children and persons with disabilities. We will continue to demand accountability from SAPS management until answers are provided and those responsible are held accountable.
