Two Supreme Court of Appeal judges last week condemned the police for failing to protect women in abusive relationships. On Thursday, Judge Mandisa Maya upheld an appeal by Sanela Dlanjwa, who had sued the minister of police for R5.8-million after her policeman husband shot her and then himself.Dlanjwa claimed the police failed to protect her from injury by Sergeant Thandikhaya Dlanjwa. In 2006, he shot the mother of triplets in the face, chest and leg before killing himself.A month earlier, she had asked Mthatha police to confiscate her husband's firearm after he threatened to shoot her, but this was not done.In 2010, the Mthatha High Court ruled that the minister of police was liable but that decision was later overturned.Judge Maya said on Thursday that the police had a legal duty to protect Dlanjwa. She found that the police had neglected that duty.On Friday, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld Charmaine Naidoo's contention that the police had failed to protect her as stipulated in the Domestic Violence Act. The court ordered the minister of police to pay Naidoo R280 000.In April 2010, Naidoo laid a charge of assault against her husband, Charlton Naidoo, at Lenasia police station. The police said that she must first obtain a protection order from a magistrate. The magistrate's court refuted this assertion. Back at the police station, she was arrested on a charge of assault laid by her husband."What followed was a trail of traumatic, humiliating, dehumanising and flagrant violations of Naidoo's rights," Judge Xola Petse said...