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We call on the Police Minister to prioritise rebuilding trust in police stations for victims of rape, women abuse and femicide. Police stations are supposed to be the basic unit of safety and security. Yet, our police stations are at the forefront of discouraging victims of rape and women to report crimes because of the hostile and dismissive attitude of majority of police officers.

Many women have stopped reporting crimes of rape and abuse because their cases are not pursued or police tell them to go resolve matters with their partners. We need an urgent mass example of police who must be fired, charged and taken to prison for defeating the ends of justice in relation to dismissing women abuse and rape complaints.

This example will go a long way to restore public trust in the police station as a place and space for reporting crimes women suffer at the hands of their partners. Without trust in the police station as a basic unit of community safety and security and police officers in our communities, war against femicide, rape and women abuse will be lost.

This is because women face danger from their own domestic and intimate spaces in fathers, brothers, husbands and partners. They also face danger from strangers on our streets. Minister Mbalula may not be able to immediately transform abusive families and romantic relationship spaces; but what he can do, in a space of no time, is to build a safe, relatable and reliable police station for related victims. Let society believe in police stations again; in particular women.

Finally, we reiterate our call for all of society; religious, business, sports, political and other formations to join hands and uproot women abuse in our families and communities.

Issued by EFF