“I was trying to alert women and children to be vigilant and aware of their environment to limit chances of being raped.”
This was an explanation by Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Elias Mawela, who had been caught in a public backlash over his speech about “teaching women and children how to avoid being raped”.
On Tuesday, while presenting the 2021/22 financial year second quarterly Gauteng crime statistics which revealed that the province had high number of reported rape cases, Mawela said SAPS had a campaign to educate society about rape.
“We need to go out there and educate women and children on how to avoid being victims of rape and sexual assault. Moreover, discouraging men from perpetrating this horrendous crime and those who decide to ignore our advice and warnings will be dealt with by our courts of law,” he had said at the time.
However, the message did not sit well with some people, accusing him of putting blame on GBV victims for being attacked.
Explaining himself to Sowetan on Wednesday, the top cop said his message was purely to communicate SAPS awareness campaign that would help empower women and children to be vigilant against gender-based violence (GBV) by detecting signs of possible danger. The campaign was informed by data collected from police dockets.
He said the message was about the newly appointed head of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences, Brig Phumzile Zulu's awareness campaign in which she would be arming women and children with information “picked up from dockets. The data details what women and children should watch out for to avoid falling victim to rapists.
“This campaign is to share with women and children the identified modus operandi used by these perpetrators because when we read in the dockets we pick up what the person [perpetrator] would have done to trick children or women and whatever method they would have used,” Mawela said.
“What she [Zulu] will be doing is to share with people that they should be on high alert as there are perpetrators who are doing the following to lure women and children in dark places to be raped or sexually assaulted,” he added.
He said he had not seen the outrage but encourage people to “work together in empowering each other with the knowledge and skills to prevent and combat all forms of GBV related incidents.”
However, children and gender rights activists insisted that Mawela should have been extra careful when communicating GBV matters.
Siya Jentile from the Not In My Name International Movement said the statement was made in bad taste and should bring into focus the importance of how language should be used when talking about rape.
“It creates an impression that the violation of women and children is as a result of their own doing and thus need to be educated on how not to be violated. Victim blaming is one of the many reasons why women and children are not speaking out. We must use this 16 days of activism against gender-based violence to reflect on the language we use and it's implications in the fight against violence on women and children,” he said.
“Part of his statement is very clear and considering the sensitivity around the topic at hand, the statement is very dangerous, especially coming from a police commissioner. Poor choice of words to say the least,” said Jentile.
Lee-Anne Germanos from the The Embrace Project said language used by police can reveal gender biases. She said if the police hold a campaign to educate women and children about rape, it needs to be about how they can access support services and not how to avoid the act.
According to crime statistics released by Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Elias Mawela this week, these are the places where GBV is most likely to occur:
Top GBV hotspots in Gauteng: Alexandra, Diepsloot, Dobsonville, Honeydew, Mamelodi East, Moroka Temba (in Hammanskraal), Orange Farm
Most common places for rape: homes, streets, open fields, parking areas, abandoned buildings
