Cape Town, Victoria Hospital Forensic Unit (First Response counselor interview, First Responders monthly meeting, general visuals) We meet Detective Warrant Officer MORNÉ JACKSON, who works for the Family Violence Child Protection and Sexual Offenses Unit, a specialist unit within the police (Wynberg Police Station).
There are 55 TCCs throughout South Africa-- police, counsellors and medical staff at the Forensic Unit all comment that this is far too few considering the extent of the problem of rape in SA. Especially in some rural or deep rural areas of South Africa there are no dedicated centers for survivors of rape. Dr Tiemensma (see below, no photos) comments that in more urban areas like Cape Town the system works relatively well—good collaboration between health facilities, the police, NGOs but in rural areas, she wonders how many rape survivors simply don’t get the services they need. Anecdotally, Detective Morné and the Rape Crisis staff say that rape is also vastly underreported—some say one in nine in cases is reported, but other estimates are that it’s not more than one in 25 cases which is reported.
Detective Morné comments that paradoxically, the NPA wants their stats on rape cases to go up—not to say that rape should increase but rather this would mean more cases were being reported, leading to more prosecutions as well.
Currently the conviction rate compared with cases reported (though not all filed as a case) is 7%. Detective Mornay says that if the NPA does not see the possibility of a successful conviction, they will not encourage the survivor to go to court.