Nine years ago, in June 2014, a shocking story was reported in the media.
A young woman in her late twenties got into a fight with her romantic partner.
The fight was so severe that she called 10111 and was advised to wait for police officers to come help her.
Within minutes, a police van with four officers arrived and the woman was informed she would be taken to the police station.
However, she was allegedly drugged and then repeatedly raped while in a state of semi-consciousness.
The woman would later report the rape case at her local police station and it would be referred to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
A year later, the case was closed as indeterminate by the case worker, Smanga Nkwanyana.
In simple terms, Nkwanyana contended he could not find sufficient evidence to prove the allegations.
Two years later, in September 2016, a student who was walking through the Cape Town city centre late at night was offered a lift to her residence by two police officers.
But instead of taking her home, the officers allegedly drove her to a secluded location where they took turns raping her.
While the case was initially reported and referred to Ipid, the young woman eventually refused to pursue the case, perhaps due to fear or trauma, or both.
Ipid would later report that the case had to then be closed.
A year later, in 2017, a 20-year-old woman was allegedly raped while in police custody in Laingsburg Police Station in the Western Cape.
She had been arrested for theft and detained alone in the holding cells when a police officer allegedly entered the cell, grabbed her and forcefully removed her clothing.
Pointing a gun at her, the officer allegedly threatened to shoot her if she screamed, before violently raping her.
I was unable to ascertain the outcome of the Ipid investigation that was subsequently launched into the case.
Over the years, similar stories were reported in the media.
In 2020, a young woman was allegedly raped inside a police station in KwaMakhutha, Durban.
The station commander opened a case against the officer and the case was referred to Ipid for investigation.
The alleged perpetrator was subjected to internal disciplinary processes.
In this case too, I could not ascertain what the outcome was.
An investigative report by Viewfinder that was published by GroundUp in August 2021 reveals that police officers who are accused of rape are rarely ever prosecuted or convicted.
Using data from Ipid, the report states that since 2012, police officers have been accused of at least 1,000 rapes.
More than a third of these officers were on duty at the time of the incidents.
In some cases, women are raped while being detained for petty crimes, such as the cases in Laingsburg and KwaMakhutha.
In other cases, officers on patrol round up women walking alone on the streets at night, offering to give them lifts home, only to take them to isolated areas to rape them.
Up to 97% of accused officers are not convicted in court, due mostly to problems in the country’s forensic data system.
Many are not even disciplined internally.
As we commemorate Women’s Month, it is important that we reflect on the institutionalised violence against women that is happening in the police force.
It’s high time society turned its attention to Ipid and the ways in which it has systematically enabled the continued rape of women by police officers through incompetent and biased investigations that fail to produce sufficient evidence for conviction.
If we can’t rid the police force of this evil, we can’t expect to win the war in communities.
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