GENDER VIOLENCE NEEDS HEFER PROBE
By Colleen Lowe Morna, Johannesburg

November 25, 2003 - (Business Day Opinion - Johannesburg) AS SA joins the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of No Violence Against Women today, it is a sobering thought that we have spent more on the Hefer commission than on fighting gender violence this year.

The costs (and benefits) of the Hefer commission are yet to be fully counted. But a journalist in Bloemfontein doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation based on the sheer logistics of the exercise and the legal fees of the country's most senior legal minds reckoned the commission had cost taxpayers R50m a fortnight into the hearings.

In contrast, and as a result of the challenge from nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) last year to put some muscle into the Domestic Violence Act, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel made a special allocation of R40m for fighting gender violence during the current financial year.

Admittedly, this is in addition to the existing structures of the criminal justice system that are supposed to be working for the rights of all, including women.

But the nub of the matter is that they are not.

Police statistics show that fewer than 7% of rape cases result in convictions. About 30%-40% of gender violence cases are withdrawn due to a combination of family intimidation and frustration with the criminal justice system.

To add to the disillusion, as the country gears up for the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign that stretches to Human Rights Day on December 10, Parliament is quietly dropping a provision from the Sexual Offences Bill that would ensure that every health facility provides post-exposure prophylaxis to survivors of sexual assault.

This cocktail of antiretroviral drugs, if taken within 72 hours of the ordeal, helps to reduce the chances of getting HIV: a high probability with police reporting that 45% of those arrested for rape are HIV-positive, and because the chances of contracting the virus are increased where sex is coerced.

Ironically, the justice department argues that, based on its experience of the Domestic Violence Act, which was not properly budgeted for before being passed, it is best not to include this provision in law until proper resource allocations are made.

This chicken-and-egg argument is a cop-out. It is precisely because the Domestic Violence Act provides for special courts to redress gender violence that it has been possible to turn up pressure on government to provide these facilities.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs Deputy Minister Cheryl Gilwald points out that in the 50 special sexual offences courts, conviction rates stand at about 60% far higher than in the normal courts.

The department plans to roll out 10 new sexual offences courts each year. What is not apparent is how many such courts would be needed before every South African threatened by gender violence has access to such facilities.

Gilwald concedes that there is no getting around the fact that to cope with the magnitude of the problem, the ordinary courts have to be retrained, sensitised and equipped to deal with gender violence, which up til now has been regarded in the same light as ordinary crimes such as bank robberies.

Which is where the commission of inquiry idea comes in. Last year's Sixteen Days campaign took place at the time when President Thabo Mbeki established a commission of inquiry into the falling rand. NGOs challenged the president to establish a commission of inquiry into low conviction rates for sexual offences. The polite response was that there was no need to establish such an inquiry, because the reasons for the low conviction rates were well known.

That misses the point. The value of commissions of inquiry is not so much to tell us what we do not know, as to cast an intense spotlight on what we do know, revealing the cracks, amplifying them, and putting those responsible under pressure to account for them.

If the strengthening of the rand is anything to go by, that commission of inquiry delivered results. If the Hefer commission can steer clear of being a pawn in bigger political games and put democratic institutions back to work, it will have been worth the money.

If a commission of inquiry into low conviction rates for rape did nothing else but to send out the message that sexual assault, especially in the era of HIV/AIDS, is one of the most serious crimes and violations of human rights in SA, it would be a price worth paying.

Lowe Morna is director of Gender Links, one of several NGOs involved in the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200311250409.html