Crimes against women and children remain alarmingly high, say police.
Mitchell’s Plain police spokesman Captain Ian Williams said areas with the most reported incidents were Rocklands and Eastridge – each with a fifth of all reported cases – followed by Tafelsig East and Beacon Valley.
Captain Williams said the crimes reported included rape, sexual assault, attempted sexual offences and other sexual offences. He said most incidents occurred on Sundays (19 cases), followed by Tuesdays (17 cases) and Saturdays and Mondays (13 cases each).
“Most of the incidents occur indoors as the suspect is known to the victim. Teens are the most affected (and) 90% of the victims are women. There have, however, also been reported cases of men being victims of rape and sexual assault,” he said.
A social worker with Mitchell’s Plain Network Opposing Abuse, Latifa Erasmus, said society, which is based on a patriarchal system, was not sensitive to women’s needs and issues.
She said cases were dropped sometimes because women could not clearly remember what happened – often because they had been drugged.
In many instances, the perpetrator was known to the victim and the parents denied the abuse.
Operations manager at the network, Mareldia Sonday, said they found that women were dependent on the offender or perpetrator for their and the family’s basic needs, and therefore didn’t do anything to get out of the abusive the situation. “There is so much awareness around the issue, but it’s as if our youth don’t take note,” she said.
Techiah September, also from the network, stressed the role parents had to play, and urged them to know who their children were spending time with.
The organisation, based at the Beaconvale Frail Care community centre, works with trauma victims and helps victims of abuse.
They also have lay counsellors who provide crisis intervention and debriefing at the Mitchell’s Plain Magistrate’s Court and assist with applications for protection orders and peace orders. An experienced social worker provides trauma counselling and formal debriefing.
A 53-year-old man was arrested for being in possession of 789 packets of tik in Mountain Street, Tafelsig, on Friday October 6. The drugs, with an estimated street value of R8 000, had been hidden in a buried container. Police said the suspect is a gang member.
Two men arrested for robbing a cellphone store in Westgate Mall and three of their accomplices who are still at large,may be investigated for robbing stores across the peninsula.
The men, aged 27 and 29, were arrested hours after five men held staff of the MTN store at gunpoint and stole cellphones, on Thursday October 5.
The men were due to appear in Mitchell’s Plain Magistrate’s Court on Monday October 9.
Police dog unit officers followed up on surveillance footage, which showed the robbers fleeing the crime scene. Their getaway vehicle, a red renault Clio, was spotted in Khayelitsha on Thursday night, and after a brief car chase, the men were arrested.
SAPS provincial police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel André Traut said: “We are hot in pursuit of their accomplices and we are also investigating the possibility that the suspects could be linked to similar robberies perpetrated at cellular telephone store in the peninsula.”
Four women were slightly injured during the robbery and were treated by ER24 paramedics on the scene before they were taken to a nearby hospital.
