This was reported yesterday on News24
Police chief ‘must act on uncollected rape kits’
2011-06-06 14:20
Johannesburg – Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Mzwandile Petros must ensure all unprocessed rape kits are collected from Johannesburg hospitals by week’s end, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.
“Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Petros must ensure that all these kits are collected before the end of this week and submitted to the forensic laboratories,” DA Gauteng spokesperson on safety and security, Kate Lorimer, said in a statement..
“He must ensure that investigating officers responsible for these cases are summarily disciplined and that new investigators are placed on these cases.”
Lorimer was commenting on a report in The Star newspaper on Monday that hundreds of rape kits which help police gather evidence were “gathering dust” in hospitals, allowing rapists to walk free.
The kits, containing swabs of semen, blood and other evidence, lay uncollected in public and private hospitals.
As a result, rape cases were not investigated and court cases were delayed, according to the report.
“These rape kits are essential as they contain evidence that can convict rapists,” Lorimer said.
‘National tragedy’
“It is horrifying to think of the number of rape victims in Gauteng who have been denied justice due to bad policing practice. These survivors of brutal sex crimes are now being re-traumatised as they realise their cases have not been properly dealt with by the police.
“Rapists are usually multiple offenders. How many victims could have been spared the horrors of rape if kits had been collected and processed when a rape was initially reported?”
An investigation by the newspaper found kits at one hospital were not collected for four years, while the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital had run out of storage space as it has so many kits, some dating back to 2000.
In April two female police officers were arrested in Tshwane after 126 stolen rape files and evidence files were found in their possession and an employee at the Pretoria forensic laboratory described the problem of uncollected kits as a “national tragedy”, the report read.
Police were meant to collect the kits once doctors had finished treating the patients, an employee at the laboratory told The Star.
Gauteng denies rape kits uncollected
2011-06-06 22:31
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Gauteng-health-denies-rape-kits-claim-20110606
Johannesburg – Media reports that suggested hundreds of rape kits remained uncollected from Gauteng hospitals are inaccurate and misleading, the provincial department of health said on Monday.
“The story published in The Star and Pretoria News today with the headline “Raped by the system” gives an incorrect impression,” spokesperson Simon Zwane said in a statement.
He said it was not true that rape victims were referred to private hospitals because of backlogs in public hospitals and that Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto had so many uncollected kits it had run out of storage for them.
“Rape cases are treated as acute cases and are attended to immediately,” he said.
The Star claimed that the kits, containing swabs of semen, blood and other evidence, lay uncollected in public and private hospitals.
As a result, rape cases were not investigated and court cases were delayed.
An investigation by the newspaper found that kits at one hospital had not been collected for four years. Some of those at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital dated back to 2000.
“[Our] reports indicate that there are only 29 specimens that have not been collected up to the end of May this year,” Zwane said.
“There are instances where specimens from self-referred survivors are not collected… it is assumed that they have not followed the advice and opted not to report the alleged incidents to the police.”
On Monday, the Democratic Alliance said that Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Mzwandile Petros should ensure that the “hundreds” of rape kits were collected before the end of this week and submitted to forensic laboratories.
– SAPA