Cape Town – The Unemployed Peoples’ Movement Young Women’s Forum marched on a Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) police station today after it allegedly ’’rejected’’ a 16-year-old rape victim, then ’’downgraded her case’’ and ’’pepper-sprayed her supporters’’.
The forum said it was “disappointed and disgusted’’ at the police’s handling of a rape case that happened just after midnight on Saturday.
’’A 16-year-old girl was raped and when she was taken to the police station in the centre of town, there was only one police officer on duty, who refused to unlock the gate to let her in.
’’They told her to go home and call the police, which she did, and a police van duly took her to Settlers Hospital for a rape kit.
’’However, the rape survivor and her family were shocked to see the next day that the police had not opened a rape case, but only one of sexual assault.
’’These are two different crimes under the Sexual Offences Act and this survivor was raped, not sexually assaulted.
’’The survivor and her friends and supporters went back to the police station on Women’s Day to challenge this and the police pepper-sprayed the young girls who had come to support her friend,’’ the forum said.
A meeting of the Makhanda community yesterday resolved to support a march by the Unemployed Peoples' Movement Young Women's Forum on the Makhanda police station.
’’There will be a march tomorrow by the survivor, parents and supporters to demand to see the SAPS station commissioner to express disappointment that this could have happened on Women's Day,’’ the forum said.
A total of 30 people were elected to attend the march in compliance with Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
IOL