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[FILE] Activists holds a placard during a march.
Chairperson of the Rapid Response Team on gender-based violence (GBV), Dr Nadia Bernon, says gaps in current legislation are allowing perpetrators of sexual crimes to evade accountability.
Her comments come amid growing concern over the increasing number of sexual assault cases involving minors, including a recent incident where a seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped on school grounds in the Eastern Cape.
The case has led to national protests and renewed calls for improved child protection, especially in schools.
Bernon says court processes often fail to protect victims and survivors of sexual violence.
“Once the case goes to NPA, to our courts, all our mobilization, all the community’s support, standing with the families of the victims – it all goes into the wind because there’s always a failure to support victims and survivors at the courts. There’s either no trace of DNA or the evidence is not enough to make an arrest and the perpetrators of sexual violence can see the gaps, watch the gaps and know that the rape cases are an exhausting process so that’s why they take advantage of the system and continue,” says Bernon.
South Africa confronted by rape scourge involving minors:
