Durban — A recording machine vital to taping information shared by rape victims in the Sexual Offences Court in Pinetown has not been working for almost five months.
This has resulted in sexual offences matters, some of which involve children, being postponed, causing further trauma to the victims.
The Sunday Tribune has learnt that the machine stopped working in November and hearings were only held when there was another courtroom available.
Activists working with sexual offences and rape victims have since slammed the Department of Justice for delaying justice for victims. Child rights activist and former head of Childline Joan van Niekerk said the delays were unacceptable.
“It causes such stress to children and families that children often feel that they cannot get on with their lives until these cases are over. Child rape victims often find themselves at the mercy of whether or not the courtroom they are attending has camera or audio machines working in order for them to give evidence,” said Van Niekerk.
She said in instances where there were constant problems with court equipment, child rape victims and their families often gave up on the case.
“We have cases that have taken between four and five years for the child’s evidence to be finalised in court, let alone the entire court process.”
Tarry Lokotsch, CEO of the Greater Rape Intervention Programme, an organisation that provides counselling, advocacy and psychosocial support services to survivors of gender-based violence, sexual assault and rape, said delays in rape matters had a tremendous emotional effect on survivors.
“It is already a scary and difficult thing to go to court where a survivor has to relive the trauma and face their perpetrators, and court proceedings are long enough already without delays,” Lokotsch said. She pointed out that the human rights of rape survivors were being violated by not fixing or replacing the recording machine timeously.
“It was something that should have been dealt with as a matter of urgency. Our justice system is already failing us and delays due to a non-functional machine makes things worse. We have had survivors who have withdrawn cases purely based on the fact that they just can’t do it anymore. They have lost hope that they will get the justice that they desperately seek. In an instance where the case is being postponed due to technical issues, we can expect that other survivors will withdraw their cases,” said Lokotsch.
She said the more cases that survivors withdrew due to frustration over delays, the more perpetrators there would be out on the streets.
“That is scary for us all. We need more court cases to be conducted more timeously.”
Department of Justice spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi said the recorder needed to be backed up first to secure information before diagnosis and the actual repairing of any faults, adding that the parts were not readily available and had to be ordered from a service provider.
When asked how long it would take before the machine was fixed or replaced, she said this depended on the nature of the fault.
“The repair process that is followed with the incumbent service provider includes, but is not limited to, the backing of cases and diagnosing of the fault and the repairing of fault. This can take time depending on the nature of the problem or part(s) required.
“The other reason is that the repair centre receives multiple faulty recorders from all courthouses around the country and that causes a backlog at the centre.”
Masibi said the reason for the machine not working was that it was “full”. She said this was established following an assessment that was done on site and escalated to the service or central repair centre in November.
“The department cares about all cases, especially sensitive cases where children are victims, and deeply apologises to the parents of victims. Where the evidence of a child needs to be taken, the courts often arrange to utilise another courtroom for that purpose. We have also introduced an alternative recording solution for use by the magistrates where machines are not functioning.”
Sunday Tribune