Cachalia ignores DA's plea to explain lack of rape kits to Parliament

Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Nicholas Gotsell, MP.

Note to editors: This is an extract of a speech today in the National Council of Provinces, debating Budget Vote 28, 24 & 21 - Police, IPID, and CSPS.

National Government repeatedly tells South Africans that Gender-Based Violence is a national disaster and the President himself has declared it a crisis.

But during my oversight visits to various police stations from December last year on the last day of the 16 days of activism to more recently on Friday, 15 May, I have found one SAPS station and one FCS unit after the other operating without rape kits:

No child rape kits in Mitchells Plain.

No rape kits or child rape kits in Nyanga.

No child rape kits in Bellville.

No child rape kits in Delft.

No rape kits in the entire Overberg.

Die Wes-Kaapse Provinsiale Kommissaris - en dus, ANC-beleid - het al hierdie stasies in die steek gelaat, al die lede wat daar diens doen en al die slagoffers van verkragting en kinderverkragting.

Not having a rape kit when a rape victim arrives at a police station or FCS unit means the attending professional cannot collect evidence from that victim in the critical, short period of time after the rape.

It means they cannot link the rape to the rapist.

It means the Police cannot arrest and the NPA cannot convict the rapist.

And, if they cannot do that, they cannot address this ugly scourge.

Minister, I wrote to your office and the Provincial Commissioner's office three weeks ago about this rape kits Supply Chain fiasco and I have not received a response from either of you.

Perhaps, in your 5 minutes at the end, you can tell this House why there were no rape kits at these stations which I visited myself, despite the fact that the Western Cape SAPS was allocated a budget to procure these crucial kits!

The Minister, in his reply to the debate, failed to take Parliament into his confidence and did not respond to the DA's request for an explanation.