PARLIAMENTARY portfolio committee on police chairman Ian Cameron has called for harsher for cops convicted of rape.
This comes after the Democratic Alliance’s deputy spokesperson on police, Lisa Schickerling, wrote to Cameron requesting that he haul SAPS senior management before the committee to address the shocking number of rape case against officers.
On Monday, Constable Naveron Jacobs, 35, appeared in the Blue Downs Magistrates Court accused of raping a Pollsmoor remandee in the court’s holding cells.
Since December, Constable Siyabonga Mbane has appeared in the same hof for an alleged rape of a detainee at the Mfuleni Police Station and a sergeant from Malmesbury is facing the same charge for an alleged sexual assault on a woman in the holding cells on Christmas Day.
According to an Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) annual report for 2023-24, there were a shocking 110 incidents of rape by police officers last year.
The report stated that of the 110 rape cases by officers, 58 were committed by officers while on-duty and 52 by off-duty officers.
Cameron says: “It is reprehensible and sickening that so many cases of gender-based violence can be perpetrated by people meant to uphold the rule of law or at a place of safety such as a police station.
“It is also sickening that some members could commit such crimes while wearing the SAPS uniform, showing complete disregard for the uniform they wear.”
He also said harsher sentences would be the only deterrence against any predisposition to commit any crime.
He continues: “In a country facing the scourge of gender-based violence, it is unacceptable that SAPS members could contribute to this scourge.
“More worrying is that in the 2022/23 financial year, the IPID received 122 cases across the country.”
Cameron added that the portfolio committee has been reiterating that the SAPS should rid the system of any rogue police officers.
He adds: “We continue to reiterate that officers who break the law must be removed from the service. The SAPS code of conduct is clear that officers must at all times adhere to and promote the rule of law.”