This is according to the Bainsvlei Police Station Commander, Constance Diphoko, who along with other female police officers at the station today embarked on a mini march in the area to not only commemorate women’s month, but also to encourage awareness on the scourge of gender-based violence in the country. Diphoko elaborates on the situation pertaining to the issue in Bainsvlei.

The Bainsvlei Station Commander says her facility doesn’t receive that many reports/cases of domestic or gender-based violence. They do, however, want to up the ante with respect to awareness because that could be one of the reasons many people aren’t reporting cases.

The march comes on the heels of the release of the latest quarterly crime statistics in which it was revealed that over 10 000 people were raped between April and June of 2021 alone, with the vast majority of the incidences occurring in victims’ homes. 

Police Minister, Bheki Cele, says a sample of 5 439 rape cases found that 487 of them were related to domestic violence.

In May, OFM News reported that the Bloemspruit Police Station had the highest reported gender-based violence (GBV) related cases in the Free State for the first three months of 2021. This was revealed by the provincial police department during a two-day GBV and femicide indaba held in Bloemfontein at the time. In the categories of murder, rape and assault, Bloemspruit was reported at the session as having the highest number of sampled GBV cases between January and March 2021. Free State law enforcement agencies conceded during this indaba that they have failed in competently handling the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) in the province.

OFM News