AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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at Boipatong. The TRC still is considering former Minister of Law and Order Adrian
Vlok’s amnesty applications for several offenses. On September 7, the TRC granted
11 ANC guards amnesty for their participation in the 1994 killing of 8 IFP demonstrators.
The TRC report called for a reconciliation summit to be scheduled in 1999, but
had not received a formal response from the Government by year’s end. The TRC
also called for increased counseling services for victims of trauma, and consideration
of a mechanism for restitution, such as a wealth tax. Victims’’ groups such as
Khulumani called for the Government to set aside $870 million (6 billion rands) for
reparation funding according to the TRC formulas. The Government did not approve
the TRC’s recommendations for an overall payment formula for reparations, which
include monetary compensation as well as community support and legal and symbolic
reparations, by year’s end. The Government had not resolved any of these matters
by year’s end; however, the processing of emergency financial reparation applications
from eligible victims continued, with approximately $4.4 million (35 million
rands) paid by year’s end. During the year, interim assistance was given to those
considered to be in the greatest financial difficulty. The TRC officially expressed
concern regarding delays in implementing reparation measures, along with doubt
about the level of government support for reparation funding.
In 1999 the Director of Public Prosecutions stated that his office had established
a special unit to set up a process for proceeding against those persons who had
failed to ask for amnesty or to whom amnesty had been denied. The unit would establish
uniform criteria on which cases should be prosecuted; the criteria would include
the strength of evidence available as well as the ‘‘implications for national reconciliation.’’
The case against Dr. Basson is the first case pursued by this unit to
go to trial (see Section 1.a.).
Section 5. Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Disability, Language, or Social
Status
The Constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of race, religion, disability,
ethnic or social origin, color, age, culture, language, sex, pregnancy, or marital status.
Legal recourse is available to those who believe that they have been discriminated
against; however, entrenched attitudes and practices, as well as limited resources,
limit the practical effect of these protections.
Women.—There is an extremely high rate of violence against women, including
rape, assault and battery, and domestic violence. Police reported that the rate of reported
rapes was 48.9 per 100,000 persons for the first 5 months of the year. The
rate for 1999 was 47.5 per 100,000. The actual population figure and numbers of
reported rapes were not published. According to a victims’’ survey study by Statistics
South Africa, a government-related organization, only 47 percent of sexual
crimes committed in 1998 were reported to the police. Women’s groups estimate the
reporting rate to be even lower. Entrenched patriarchal attitudes towards women
are a significant factor in underreporting. Abused women have difficulty getting
their cases prosecuted effectively and also often are treated poorly by doctors, police,
and judges.
The 1998 Domestic Violence Act defines victims of domestic violence, facilitates
the serving of protection orders on abusers, provides places of safety for victims, allows
police to seize firearms at the scene and arrest abusers without a warrant, and
compels medical, educational, and other practitioners working with children to report
abuse immediately. The 1993 Prevention of Family Violence Act defines marital
rape as a criminal offense, and it allows women to obtain injunctions against their
abusive husbands and partners in a simpler, less expensive, and more effective
manner than under previous legislation. However, the implementation process is inadequate,
as some police are reluctant to enforce the act. As a consequence, a limited
number of women filed complaints under the law, despite government and NGO
efforts to increase public awareness of it. At year’s end, the parliamentary monitoring
committee on women’s affairs was completing consultations with NGO’s and
local and national government officials regarding defects in the domestic violence
laws, preparing a report for the relevant ministries on how the legislation can be
modified to ensure more effective implementation, and focusing on efforts to ensure
that the budget oversight process included greater emphasis on the effects of government
programs on women. While some progress was made, the number of shelters
for battered women remained insufficient. The SAPS continued to operate 46
Family Violence, Child Protection, and Sexual Offenses units, which deal specifically
with these issues and which are intended, in part, to increase victims’ confidence
in the police, thereby leading to increased reporting of such crimes. However, these
units often were hampered by a lack of training among officers. During the year,
the Government began a training program for these units.
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