SIBASA – The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Dr Penuel Maduna, declared war against sex offenders during the official opening of the second Sexual Offences Court in Sibasa.

The establishment of this court follows last week's launch of a similar court at Umtata in the Eastern Cape. Recently, there were many reports of gruesome stories where women and children were raped. Maduna said he was happy that the South African Police Service and the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) have been successful in the arrest and conviction of the offenders. As a result, the NPA identified violence against women and children as one of the priority areas that need its urgent attention.

The National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, who was also part of the official opening said, "this type of crime is not easy to pro-actively curb because most of the time the assailants are very close to the victims." Ngcuka said the NDPP had identified a number of areas that needed intervention. He said the Soca Unit had begun a training process that would eventually produce well-trained professionals and effective prosecutors who would have the capacity to humanely handle and vigorously prosecute cases of sexual violence against women and children.

Ngcuka said there are thirty Sexual Offences Courts in the country, including the Sibasa one. However, this is the second court of this kind in the area, after the one in Thohoyandou. Maduna said they decided to open another office because the current one is over-loaded.

Maduna stated that "this court is a conversion of a normal court into a favourable environment for the hearing of these matters. Victims of abuse become more comfortable in these courts which have separate waiting rooms for children and women, equipped with couches and television sets.

More so, the courts have a separate room from which the victims will tell their side of the story during the court proceedings to ensure that victims do not feel threatened by the justice system."

Ngcuka said the Sexual Offence Courts are beginning to reap their rewards, as there has been a notable increase in the conviction rate, from 56% in 2002 to 74% achieved.

Monde Mama, Executive Head of Vodacom Foundation, the sponsor of this new court, said they were proud to bring facilities like this closer to the communities so that they can appropriately deal with socials ills such as rape and other forms of woman and childr abuse. "As a result of these courts, we expect that there will now be a quicker process of dealing with cases of abuse, ensuring cases are reported timely and perpetrators convicted swiftly to protect victims," said Mama. Meanwhile, MEC Dikeledi Magadzi has urged the community to report any incidents of woman and child abuse as soon as they became aware of them. Adv. Bethuel Manyuha, Director of Public Prosecution in the area, said the signs of increase in the number of sexual offences have already been there since 1998. He then said it was the reason why they targeted sexual assault cases, viz. to reduce secondary acts, like rape. He said there was also a need to reduce the cycle period as the delay might lead to interference in the case.

As a testimony to that, Manyuha said their court had already sentenced twenty offenders to life term imprisonment, according to the minimum sentence rule.