NPA pulled up short

For two years the sexual offences and community affairs unit of the National Prosecuting Authority has made no mention of how it plans to handle cases of domestic violence.

This despite the fact that it has the responsibility of dealing with all matters involving violence against women.

The Sexual Offences Act requires the NPA to guide and train prosecutors to deal with sexual crimes, and to inform parliament of this work.

The Tshwaranang report found that the directives are available only on the internet.

And while the NPA trained at least 645 prosecutors between 2008 and 2009, it "does not appear to have tabled these courses in parliament", the report says.