Police round off 16 Days campaign

KNYSNA NEWS - Hundreds of police officers and law enforcement role players from around the Western Cape descended on Knysna for the province's closing event of 16 Days of Activism of No Violence against Women and Children last weekend.

The event was held at Concordia High School on Saturday 10 December, with provincial police management and justice, crime prevention and security cluster (JCPS) departments gathering alongside other law enforcement role players.

The event was hosted under the theme "Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment to build Women's Resilience against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide: Connect, Collaborate, Contract!".

The closing event was the last of 508 awareness activities conducted since the campaign was launched at Saldanha Bay last month.

"The JCPS cluster departments were joined by representatives from the community police forums in the province, Business Against Crime, community safety structures and the religious fraternity with a large group of community members who were in attendance," explained Southern Cape police spokesperson Sergeant Chris Spies.

Other events conducted during the period included capacity building and gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) work sessions for police officials, relaunching and inspections of victim-friendly rooms at police stations, spiritual crime prevention events and men's imbizos.

"The Provincial Head of the SAPS Family violence, Sexual offences and Child protection (FCS) unit, Brigadier Sonja Harri, expressed concern about the high number of statutory rapes reported in the province," Spies said. "She warned perpetrators that police will ensure that they are incarcerated for lengthy periods should they be found to be involved in the commission of such crime."

Harri also lauded the specialised investigators of FCS units in the province for their diligence, which helped ensure that 343 perpetrators were convicted and removed from the streets of during the past year.

The achievements and convictions included 16 life sentences; imprisonment of 20 years and more for 35 convicted perpetrators; 10 to 19 years' imprisonment for 62 convicted perpetrators; and one to nine years imprisonment for 230 perpetrators.

"Crime combatting operations conducted over the 16-day campaign also yielded excellent results with a number of suspects arrested for sexual related offences, domestic violence incidents and other offences relating to crimes against women and children, the most vulnerable in society," Spies said.

"These activities are part of ongoing policing efforts to eradicate the scourge of GBVF. GBVF remains a priority for the police and Western Cape police management once again urged victims to report incidents soonest."

Police and law enforcement members engage during the event.