A 12-year-old boy who was raped and abused between 2013 and 2017 is one of thousands neglected by the DNA board due to non-performance. The alleged abuse and rape allegedly occurred from the time he was four years old until eight.
“The DNA board management should be sacked. The secretary of the oversight board earn more than R100 000 per month and while taxpayers fund them, they have only met once this whole year and it is evident that they are not doing their job as the DNA backlog continues to worsen with little or no sign of improvement,” says Action Society spokesperson, Ian Cameron.
He adds: “The prosecution of offenders that commit these horrific crimes can never be successful and serve as a warning for possible future offenders when the DNA backlog continues. Many cases are being scrapped from court rolls because of the backlog and reports not being available. The state’s inability and lack of resolve to sort out this issue is making them complicit”.
In the court proceedings, the boy testified how he was chained to a chair in a dungeon and how on one occasion, several people came into the dungeon and sexually violated him. They took photos while doing so while his mother watched.
“The justice system is failing victims of violent crime in South Africa, this has become a human rights violation,” concludes Cameron.
The boy’s mother has been charged with rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, child negligence and compelling or causing children to witness sexual offences, sexual acts or self-masturbation. His stepfather faces charges of rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
ISSUED BY: Action Society
DATE: 30 September 2021
