Pretoria - Police have established a total of 906 victim friendly rooms across the country to assist victims of crimes, especially crimes against women, children and the elderly, says Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
In a response to a Parliamentary question on victim friendly rooms, the minister said of these victim friendly rooms, 819 have been established at police stations and 87 are at other service points such as airports, railway police stations and coaches as well as at various satellite police stations.
“The Western Cape has the highest number of such facilities at a police station level with 150, followed by Gauteng with 137 and KwaZulu-Natal with 135,” the minister said.
Mthethwa said they were capacitating police stations to be able to deal with violence against women, children and the elderly, which he said remained a sore point.
“In the new police stations that we build and those that are being refurbished, we ensure that there are special dedicated areas for the victims of such crimes. A working relationship with the judiciary has also assisted our efforts because such cases are now being prioritised,” the minister said.
According to the National Instruction on Victim Empowerment, police stations without victim friendly rooms, must make arrangements that allow for victims to be interviewed in private, for example by identifying one or more offices or alternate rooms like a conference room, that can be used to take statements in private or provide information to victims.
Government has recently re-established the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units. – SAnews.gov.za
