P 131134Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6953
INFO SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC

UNCLAS PRETORIA 000059 
 
 
DEPT FOR AF/S MARBURG AND INL FOR LSMALLS AND SSNYDER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM SF PHUM KWMN SOCI PREL
SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA ADOPTS NEW WEAPON IN THE BATTLE 
AGAINST SEX CRIME 
 
¶1. Summary:  South Africa's cabinet recently passed a DNA 
Bill that will allow police officials to collect DNA from 
suspects of crimes, particularly, suspects of rapes and 
murders.  This is a step in the right direction toward 
combating Sexual Offenses, but manpower and training still 
continue to be an issue.  South Africa Police Services is 
increasing its overall force strength in preparation for the 
2010 World Cup, but much more work is needed to develop an 
adequate force of trained sexual offense investigators.  End 
summary. 
 
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South Africa Cabinet Approves the DNA Bill 
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¶2.  South Africa's cabinet recently approved a new DNA bill 
that, with final adoption (expected in the next session of 
Parliament) will allow investigating police officers to take 
a mouth swab of saliva or draw blood from the finger tip from 
an individual suspected of rape.  Hitherto, only a physician 
could conduct a DNA test procedure, a restriction which often 
results in the absence of physical evidence linking suspects 
to sex crimes.  Briefing the press on the  law, a Justice 
Ministry spokesperson indicated the law, when finalized, 
would also expand the fingerprint-taking powers of the police 
by making it compulsory for convicts and suspects to be 
printed.  The police would be linked electronically with the 
HANIS system of the Department of Home Affairs which has the 
fingerprints of 31 million citizens and 2.5 million 
foreigners on record as well as the Department of Transports 
eNaTIS system where a further 6 million thumb prints are 
located.  The Justice Ministry hopes this will lead to a 
significant increase in suspect to crime scene matches. 
 
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South Africa's Low Rape Conviction Rate 
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¶3.  Over 95% of rape suspects in South Africa walk free.  Of 
every 25 men accused of rape, 24 are released. South Africa, 
Tshwaranang Legal Resources and Center for the Study of 
Violence and Reconciliation Agency, recently conducted the 
largest ever rape study which exposed how badly police and 
justice authorities are handling reported rape cases. This 
study, supported by the South African Police Services (SAPS), 
has tracked 2068 rape cases reported in seventy Gauteng 
Police Stations through the justice system from 2003 to 
present. 
 
¶4.  The Tracking Justice Study findings are as follow: 
 
----Only 4.1% of reported rape cases resulted in a conviction 
 
----One out of every 10 child rape cases reported to the 
police resulted in a conviction 
 
----Half of all reported cases resulted in arrests, but only 
42.8% were charged in court. 
 
----One in five reported rapes resulted in a trial. 
 
----One in three alleged rapists were granted bail. 
 
----Of the 34 convicted rapists eligible for a life sentence, 
only four received a life sentence. 
 
----More than a third of reported rape victims were under the 
age of 17, with children under the age of 7 making 14.6% of 
all victims. 
 
----More than a third of alleged rape victims withdraw their 
cases 
 
----The average number of attempts made by police to contact 
the alleged victim before declaring the victim alleged or 
untraceable was three times. In some cases no effort was made. 
 
----Reports containing the results of DNA test were available 
only in 2% of rape dockets, despite sexual assault evidence 
collection kits being collected in 67% of cases and sent to 
the police's laboratory for testing in 51% of the cases. 
 
----A blood sample from the suspect is taken in only 8.2% of 
cases. 
 
----In more than half of all rape dockets, the police 
official in charge had to repeatedly be urged to arrest the 
rape suspect. In nearly a third of such cases, the suspect 
disappeared by the time the police official involved 
attempted to arrest. 
 
----While Police close nine out of every 20 reported rape 
cases largely because the alleged perpetrator could not be 
identified or located, the study found that over three 
quarters of all victims statements contained no description 
of the alleged rapist. 
 
¶5.  National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe 
recently admitted under oath that "South Africa's Justice 
system is failing its child rape victims. Instead of having 
made vast progress since 2000, dedicated (child rape) courts 
have declined in numbers; South Africa Police Services (SAPS) 
Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offenses Units 
have been redeployed; trained forensic social workers 
employed by the police have become scarce; some magistrates 
have been obstructive; the system of district surgeons was 
abolished (giving rise to a loss of expertise); and the need 
for training of all remains with language barriers 
exacerbating every identified issue". 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶6.  As senior officials admit the system is failing rape 
survivors and begin to acknowledge that the consequences of 
this failure to society are dire, pressure is mounting to 
build an effective criminal justice response to South 
Africa's sexual violence epidemic.  South Africa's new DNA 
law will go a long way in assisting the criminal justice 
system in identification and prosecution of rape suspects. 
The fingerprint data bank will provide an added advantage to 
law enforcement in the detection of suspect of domestic and 
foreign.  The Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative 
(WJEI) program has been active in bridging the training gap 
to Sexual Offenses Investigating Officers and is responsible 
for the training over 360 Sex Crime Investigators and 
Supervisors.  The WJEI Team in SA is also addressing issues 
around magistrate training in order to ensure that the South 
African criminal justice system will be able to make full use 
of the tools the new law will provide to curb sexual violence. 
 
 
 
BOST