NATIONAL NEWS - A police officer allegedly raped a woman inside an SAPS holding cell in Pietermaritzburg at the weekend.
It is alleged that the 38-year-old woman was raped between Saturday and early Sunday morning.
The woman had been arrested on Friday and was detained for the weekend.
She alleges that a police officer came into the holding cells and raped her twice. A police source told The Witness that the woman reported the matter on Sunday morning.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) spokesperson, Lizzy Suping said they were still investigating the matter and will speak on the outcome once the investigation has been complete.
The Witness believes the police officer had not been arrested by the time of publication.
Residents who are aware of the alleged incident said they were shocked and have called on the justice system to make an example out of this police officer.
One of the residents, who did not want to be named, said it was sad to learn of this case during the 16 days of activism campaign.
This very same police station recently launched the 16 days of activism campaign and I am sure this police officer would have been among the members who were calling for an end to this pandemic.
It doesn’t matter what this woman did, but she didn’t deserve to be assaulted in this way by someone who was meant to protect her.
Life Line Pietermaritzburg
LifeLine director Sinikiwe Biyela said they are concerned because they depend on police officers to protect women and children who have been abused.
Biyela said police officers are sometimes tasked with moving the victims of gender-based violence (GBV) on their own to safety so the incident was very worrying.
How can we trust SAPS members if they are also perpetrating GBV inside holding cells? It makes the whole fight against GBV questionable because the people who should be at the forefront are also perpetrators. As a country we are fighting a losing battle.
She added that police officers deal with law enforcement and they have seen many rape perpetrators not being charged.
We have a number of cases at LifeLine where women are abused by their partners who are police officers who also use service pistols to threaten them.
She added the minister of police needed to do something about this urgently to change the behaviour of police officers who are perpetrators.
Biyela said they are calling for the justice system to prove they are against gender-based violence by ensuring that this police officer faces severe consequences for his actions.
They need to send a strong message to other SAPS members that are either thinking of doing this or have done it before but have not yet been arrested, to actually stop.
