Pretoria - Mpumalanga's newly appointed Police Commissioner, Thulani Ntobela, believes that incidences of sexual abuse were mainly caused by liquor abuse.
Commissioner Ntobela said that most crime took place on weekends when most people were under the influence of alcohol, from 4pm on a Friday to 4am on a Sunday.
He was speaking at the provincial launch of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign held on Thursday at Mangweni in the Nkomazi Municipality.
The provincial police boss explained that 24 percent of cases of sexual abuse happened to people who were between the ages of 1 to 20-years-old and those between 13 to 17-years-old made up 32 percent. He added that those older than 18-years-old were the real victims.
"As SAPS we are here to bring a message of hope that today is better than yesterday. This campaign should not only be for 16 days, but should become our everyday job as the police.
"We need you to participate in the sector of policing so that you will alert us when you witness domestic violence since police officers cannot be in every street corner," he said
Provincial Acting MEC for Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Vusi Shongwe urged victims of abuse not to withdraw reported cases from the police stations.
"Our mothers and sisters who come to the police stations to open cases relating to abuse, should work with the police in ensuring that reported cases are successfully concluded.
"You are not helping us when you open a case today and tomorrow you come back and withdraw the same case. This is waste of resources and it is not encouraged.
"When we talk about being frontal in the fight against this crime, we refer to a solidified partnership with the victims too," said Shongwe.
He added that the provincial government was concerned with the last financial year's crime statistics which indicated that the province has recorded over 4 500 cases of sexual abuse.
He said in partnership with communities, government needed to uncompromisingly confront sexual abuse.
"Despite having a world-renowned Constitution and a legislative overhaul that safeguard women's rights, we still have among our communities high level of violence against women and children
"We need to ensure that the level of awareness is increased so that negative impacts of this violence are well exposed.
"We will like to encourage our people more especially the victims, to expose the perpetrators," he said.
