It is the ultimate betrayal.
Last week, a Free State police captain with the family violence, child protection and sexual offences (FCS) unit at a local police station was arrested after allegedly sexually assaulting a child while asking her if she missed her rapist.
The charge sheet screams of every conceivable horror committed against women and children, and every victim who was ever sexually assaulted.
It is also speaks to the inconceivable – that the very person a victim turned to in their most vulnerable state, trusting that they would apprehend the person who assaulted them, turned out to be the person who twisted the knife in their wounds.
The officer, according to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), allegedly even reoffended while being out on bail in a previous charge. He was arrested for rape on September 22, released on bail three days later – and within that week rearrested for allegedly raping another two women and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old rape victim.
All these are alleged to have happened while he was investigating their respective cases.
As many as 139 police officers have GBV charges hanging over their heads, according to the police minister.
Now the questions start. How does the screening work for police officers who need to investigate the most sensitive of cases? How was he even allowed on bail, given his job as an officer of the law, and the fact that the victim is a minor?
The accused faces a rape charge dating back to 2001, when he was investigating a robbery case against the victim’s brother.
How do we trust a system if there is a perception that you are walking into a lion’s den?
As many as 139 police officers have gender-based violence (GBV) charges hanging over their heads — and this at 13 police stations across SA – police minister Bheki Cele told parliament in October in response to a parliamentary question.
As the country is gearing up for 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, there will be a host of events, campaigns, talk shops, promises. Then the event will pass and the cycle of abuse will start turning again.
With the presidential promise of a dedicated gender-based violence desk at the 30 worst affected areas moving at a snail’s pace, it did for a minute ignite hope that victims would finally get dignified treatment.
But it takes one story about a police captain to douse that flame of hope.
The allegations against him include raping the 11-year-old rape victim while he was supposed to take a statement. He allegedly also demanded sex from the girlfriend and sister of a man accused of rape, in return for making the case go away.
A third allegation is that he sexually assaulted a woman who was raped by two men. Again, instead of assisting her, he allegedly “flashed” his penis at her, demanding sex and, when she refused, drove her to a remote spot and sexually assaulted her.
This was not the end of the trauma for the woman, because the officer then allegedly forged her signature on a withdrawal statement against one of the two men arrested for her rape.
He then allegedly tried to make the charge go away against the man who had been arrested in her rape case.
The odds are stacked against the police to restore faith in a system that has failed so many victims, to prove that they are indeed the protectors.
That one police officer could seemingly get away with so many alleged sexual offences in his position – the unit where victims come when at their most vulnerable – will be the benchmark against which the police will be measured.
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