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The start of this year’s Women’s Month is marred by the continued failure of police to effectively support women subjected to domestic violence.

I will be submitting questions to Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko to establish the level of compliance by Gauteng police with the Domestic Violence Act (DVA). The MEC must also outline the strategy of her department to effectively combat domestic violence in the province and provide leadership where the police fail to do so.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) does not consider domestic violence a stand-alone crime when it compiles statistics even though manual domestic violence registers are supposed to be kept at each police station in terms of the DVA. The police therefore cannot track trends and develop effective policing strategies to combat domestic violence.

The latest figures from the then-Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) indicated that up to 65% of police stations do not comply with the DVA. This means that police officers are not completing registers properly, are not filing protection orders and warrants of arrest and are not advising victims of their rights.

Gauteng was the biggest culprit with 27% of the DVA complaints against police implementation in the country.

Research presented to Parliament indicated that 53% of domestic violence victims were told they were "not allowed" to lay a charge and 63% of victims were told they "could not" lay criminal charges.

These figures point to either a lack of training and discipline in the SAPS regarding the implementation of the DVA, or no will by the police to implement it.

An integrated, electronic record-keeping system needs to be introduced and maintained to ensure effective tracking of domestic abuse, its victims and perpetrators and the formulation of a comprehensive strategy to address domestic violence. Without it, we will never have a realistic picture of this crime that is so damaging to so many women.

The Gauteng Department of Community Safety and the provincial police to up their game and take this issue far more seriously.

Women form the cornerstone of our society. It is crucial that the SAPS does all it can to ensure that South Africa’s women are able to live their lives free of fear. The MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko and Provincial Police Commissioner Mzwandile Petros need to make sure that this happens.