Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Woman violated with spoon – NPA disregards evidence to charge the accused with rape

Despite allegations being made under oath and photo evidence showing a woman being sexually violated with a spoon, the National Prosecuting Authority has not charged the man accused of the crime with rape. Furthermore, prosecutors at the Pretoria North Magistrates Court ignored AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit’s request that the case be transferred to a regional court and the man charged with this serious sexual offence.

Felicia Mkondo, who consented to being identified, approached the unit for help because, according to her, the prosecutor assigned to the case was ill-treating her, exposing her to secondary trauma, and evidence had gone missing from the docket. The accused, who cannot be identified until he has pleaded to the charges, appeared in court on Thursday.

While he faces charges of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and sexual harassment, the unit has written twice to a senior public prosecutor to argue that rape should be added because there is ample evidence to support the charge. Both letters have gone unanswered. The alleged offences took place between February 2020 and December 2022, while the complainant and the accused were in a romantic relationship. To avoid any possible obstacle that may prevent access to our letters, we handed over two hardcopies to the prosecutor in court this morning.

As stated in the letter to the NPA, it was during period that the accused allegedly subjected the complainant to physical and sexual violence, such as inserting a tablespoon into her private parts whilst highly pregnant which resulted in massive bleeding; punching, slapping, throttling and throwing her against walls.

Mkondo says the NPA has not taken her case seriously. “I was actually abused sexually, physically. I had pictures, I’ve got evidence, but every day when I came to court, the evidence was not there. The crucial pictures were missing all the time.

“With AfriForum, they communicate with me, they ask me how I feel. I think my mental health is actually at state now. I sleep like a baby. The way they treat me, they call me, they update me. It’s what I was expecting from the court of law to treat me that way, but no, they did the opposite,” she said.

In April this year, NDPP Shamila Batohi said gender based violence was “the most important women’s human rights issue that government and society must address as a collective. The rape and killing of our women is in fact reflective of the society that is devoid of a sense of humanity.”

Barry Bateman, spokesperson for the unit, says the NPA continues to fail female victims of crime. “The treatment complainants continue to suffer at the hands of prosecutors is a far cry from the lofty commitments made by NPA leadership, who are so far removed from the realities experienced in the courts. For as long as prosecutors fail to communicate with complainants, treat them with contempt, and disregard their needs, perpetrators will walk free. The Private Prosecution Unit will support victims of gender based violence and ensure prosecutors do their jobs,” said Bateman.

The case was postponed to 1 August for trial, however the Private Prosecution Unit will make further representations to the NPA to ensure the accused is charged with rape.