20 February 2007
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is deeply shocked and outraged by the reports that a female prisoner was locked up in the police station holding cell in Volksrst together with male prisoners, and the process was gang raped.
As the SACP we regard this barbaric act as criminal negligence and highly irresponsible on the part of our police officers. Of even more serious concern is the ease with which black women are handling by some of our public institutions. We are therefore calling on the Department of Safety and Security to ensure that they leave no stone unturned in bringing the perpetrators of this crime to book as a matter of urgency.
We further call on the department to probe the allegations that police at the Volkrust police station in Mpumalanga were negligent in this regard. Our society can no longer accept and tolerate this kind of conduct on the part of people whose responsibility is to ensure the safety and human dignity for all our people.
As the SACP we shall engage our structures in the Mpumalanga province to ensure that this case is followed up to its logical conclusion and ensure that justice is done.
We further call on government to put systems in place in ensuring the safety and security of all our people who are arrested, and more so we should create an environment in which the safety of women and children becomes a priority. It is indeed very cruel that as we intensify our campaign against women abuse, such abuse is allowed to happen even when women are under the protection of the institutions of the criminal justice system.
We shall not rest, and will follow this matter, until it is concluded, and the perpetrators punished.
Issued by: SACP
Malesela Maleka
SACP Spokesperson
Tel: 011 339 3621
Fax: 011 339 4244
Cell: 082 226 1802
Email: Malesela@sacp.org.za