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South African response

"It’s a society that’s recovering from the ills of the past, so you can’t divorce that from the beings [with whom] you’re dealing."
Advocate Thoko Majokweni, Special Director of Public Prosecutions

In South Africa during the making of the film, the National Commissioner of Police publicly announced that tackling violence against women and children was a top priority. He allocated additional funds for the training and employment of investigating officers and for equipping them with vehicles and other resources.

While Deputy Justice Minister Cheryl Gilwald does not accept that the incidence of sexual assault is higher in South Africa, she says, "I do believe we’re unusual in the amount of openness and discussion and discourse in the community. This is a very open debate. It sometimes actually jars with foreigners - they’re very frightened of our degree of openness.

"The issue here is that even if we had unlimited resources and we developed a 100 percent response rate to every incidence of violence, sexual or other, we would just be dealing with the symptoms. It’s about South Africans deciding individually and collectively that we will become intolerant of violent behaviour and that as mothers we will teach our sons that a violent solution to any problem is the ultimate cowardice and that the path of peace is the brave choice, the right choice, and the choice that must be encouraged."

One of the issues that plagues many survivors of sexual assault - and is of particular concern in Glory’s case - is how frequently offenders are released on bail.

Deputy Minister Gilwald acknowledges that this is an area of criticism, but says it’s not the role of the legislature (parliament) to dictate whether or not an individual perpetrator should be released on bail. She argues that this decision must be left to the judiciary.

"The independence of the judiciary is a principal most of us would die for. It is a very important component of a proper justice system. But yes, I do believe that we need to be very careful about the way we protect victims."

On her last visit to South Africa in November 2003, Cathy was told by Advocate Thoko Majokweni, Special Director of Public Prosecutions, that there are now 50 sexual offences courts in South Africa and that, as a result, the withdrawal rate has dropped, while the conviction rate has climbed from less than 50 percent to an average of 65 percent.

Thoko suggests this is because the specialised courts are better suited to meeting the needs of survivors of sexual assault than the general court system.

"Sexual assault strikes at the very bottom of your being, of your existence, and that is a very difficult place to recover from. I think that is what essentially separates sexual offences cases [from] other cases. It strikes at the very bottom of your being. Hence you find that a number of sexual assault survivors are suicidal and become suicidal for long periods after the sexual assault, so we need to treat them very differently to other kinds of offences and you can’t assume that the same methods and methodologies that we use for the other cases are necessarily relevant or useful for sexual assault victims and survivors."

She adds, "We have seen raised levels of reporting in specific areas. More people are staying on in the criminal justice system. [In relations to Laura’s case] where we are now would be very different."

Superintendent Andre Neethling, the man responsible for re-opening Laura’s case, 14 years after her attack, tells Cathy when she returns in 2003 that the South African government is adequately responding to the crisis and that he has evidence: 24 life sentences have been issued in the past three months. In addition, 44 other perpetrators have been sentenced to jail for between 10 and 25 years.

Superintendent Andre Neethling goes on to say, "I think there is a political will and I think what we managed to achieve now is the actual implementation [of that] will. And I do believe that there’s urgency now. The work that we do is recognised as the actual priority in this country to deal with."

Even Lisa Vetten, who is still very critical of South Africa’s criminal justice system, acknowledges that there have been some improvements in recent years.

"If we look at the situation a couple of years ago, media coverage was the exception rather than the rule. There was very little policy, there were no specialist units and there were no [specialist] rape courts. Although it sounds so obvious, people actually [now] think this is something to get outraged about. Ten years ago it had to be truly exceptional to even merit a mention, so the fact that it is something that is talked about and that people say is wrong, is a first step. There need to be many, many more steps though.

"It’s incredibly important to keep up the pressure on governments and other institutions, because if we don’t people become complacent."

But as recently as 2002, Charlene Smith believed many women still lived in fear of violent attacks.

"We all have security companies, certainly those of us who live in cities," says Charlene Smith. One of the services offered by these security companies is a pre-determined number of personal escorts each month.

"Women will phone a security company, particularly if they go out at night, and they’ll say, 'I’m arriving home at, say, ten o’clock, can someone meet me or can someone escort me from a certain place?', and so armed guards will literally take you from your gate to your front door, they’ll go into the house before you, check that everything’s okay and then lock up - you’ll lock up behind them. So it’s a severely serious situation."