Kowthar Solomons
13 November 2009
A Tafelsig woman who says she was raped and then let down by the authorities and NGOs at every turn has secured the assurance of two provincial government ministers that they will investigate the matter.
From her first visit to lay a charge at Mitchells Plain police station after the rape on April 8, Toufeeqah Williams, 36, says she has been let down by authorities and NGOs alike.
Williams first stood up to tell her story in a public forum, when she addressed the MECs for health, social development and community safety during a public participation meeting in Mitchells Plain earlier this week. Afterwards, Lennit Max, MEC for community safety, admitted it was the third time he had heard her story.
Williams told the Cape Argus she was raped by a friend of her former husband. The man was arrested and charged two days later, but was then released on bail of R300 after the investigating officer failed to leave instructions with the relevant court officials when he went on leave.
That was the second blow in her fight for justice.
First, at the Mitchells Plain police station, she was assigned a student constable, rather than an officer trained to deal with rape survivors. Williams said the constable "didn't know what he was doing".
Hours later a detective finally took her to GF Jooste Hospital where doctors confirmed there were signs she had been raped.
In court, Williams recalled, her alleged rapist's lawyer told the court "this isn't a serious case".
Her alleged rapist was granted bail, although her lawyer had argued that he was a foreigner with no fixed address here and could leave the country at any time.
"I suffered an epileptic (fit) right there and ended up in hospital. But later, when I called the investigating officer to find out why he wasn't in court, all he could say was that he had forgotten," she said.
During the trauma, Williams said, even Rape Crisis "let me down".
She called them for help after the incident, but was told by a trainee, who had answered the phone, that she should call back "three weeks later" as the trainee could not immediately deal with her case.
Five weeks later, Williams discovered she was pregnant with her rapist's child.
"I didn't know what to do. I couldn't give birth to his child after what he did to me and I decided to have an abortion." In May she suffered a miscarriage.
Before the miscarriage Williams sought help at GF Jooste Hospital when she started bleeding. She said that when she told the doctor she was a rape survivor, he "put on two pairs of gloves and told me he was scared of catching HIV".
The case was struck off the roll last month because, according to Williams, the magistrate said there was too much evidence outstanding. The accused was released.
Williams had been unable to attend that day's court proceedings because she had a neck injury, she said.
Williams decided to get hold of Max to voice her objections. She said he promised to look into her case personally, and later received an SMS saying a new investigating officer had been assigned.
After hearing nothing for the next six weeks, Williams decided to tell all at the public meeting.
After the meeting, Max and his Social Development counterpart, Ivan Meyer, acknowledged they knew about her case. They said the matter was under investigation.
When contacted by the Cape Argus, Max's spokesperson Julian Jansen said the MEC had received the case report only on Thursday.
"The Minister will thoroughly study the report as to make further decisions. The right of the complainant to seek justice and closure on this very personal and sensitive issue will have to be respected," Jansen said.
Meyer's department said they were unable to contact the woman via her cell phone; their Mitchells Plain branch had been alerted and had been searching for her.
When the Cape Argus attempted to contact Williams after the meeting, she was located very quickly.
Women's rights advocate Lisa Vetten said that, as horrific as Williams' story sounded, "it is unfortunately a daily occurrence for women in South Africa".
Nazma Hendricks, Rape Crisis spokesperson, said the organisation had seen Williams prior to the time she was allocated a trainee to help her.
"At times cases are out of the scope of interns and they then refer survivors to outside psychologists. That is what we intended to do with (Williams)," she said.
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