THOHOYANDOU - Although the police in the Vhembe District announced publicly that sexual assault cases have been reduced, the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme (TVEP) does not agree with the police statement.

Ms Fiona Nicholson, the chief executive officer of the TVEP, said that an average of 40 cases have been reported every month. About 58% of all cases involve children aged 17 or younger (about 23 children per month) and 40% of all cases involve pre-teen children (about 15 children aged 12 or under per month).

According to Nicholson, approximately 15 cases of rape against children aged 12 are reported per month, 23 cases of rape against children aged 17 are reported per month, while 17 cases of rape against adults are reported per month. In the Vhembe District, approximately 40 indicents of rape are reported every month.

“These statistics are based on cases of sexual assault that are reported to either one of the TVEP’s trauma centres at Donald Fraser and Tshilidzini. Although most of these cases originate from the Thohoyandou policing district, 5-10% come from the Vuwani and Levubu areas. The monthly averages given are based on four years of data collection,” Nicholson said.

“Our sexual assault figures include sodomy, which is still classified by the SAPS as indecent assault.

According to Nicholson, all their statistics can be verified. “We maintain very comprehensive records, which include the victim’s age, name and address, the SAPS case number, the name of the investigating officer and even the name and age of the perpetrator,” said Nicholson.

She added that, in June last year, the SAPS claimed to have opened 18 cases of rape in April. The TVEP has printed out a list of 37 cases, all with their SAPS case numbers, names of victims. We asked them if they could clarify the difference. “We opened the door to attach blame to ourselves by suggesting that perhaps we were misallocating sodomy as rape,” said Nicholson.

“After 12 months, the area commissioner had failed to answer our queries, so we wrote to the CIAC at provincial level in June this year. He promised to sort the matter out, but four month have passed, and he has not responded to our reminders,” Nicholson said.