First and foremost, on the matter of handling of alleged rape cases, it must be borne in mind that the process of investigating the alleged rape must follow a specific and prescribed chain of evidence to ensure that medico-legally there is no compromise to the quality of evidence collected, thus protecting the victim when the evidence is before a court of law. Bearing this in mind, the response to this question is as follows:
(a) The total number of Thuthuzela care centres (TCCs) in the country is 55.
Eastern Cape: 9
Free State: 4
Gauteng: 7
KwaZulu Natal: 8
Limpopo: 7
Mpumalanga: 5
Northern Cape: 4
North West: 5
Western Cape: 6
a) Hospitals are not obligated to have rape kits as the Department of Health is not involved in the procurement and delivery of rape kits as procurement and delivery is the responsibility of the South African Police Service (SAPS). The SAPS brings these kits along to the Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) as and when there is a sexual assault reported. Therefore the issue of keeping rape kits at health facilities only emanates where there is a discussion between the health facility and the SAPS station responsible.
b) Not applicable based on the response in 1(b).
2. There is no prescribed number of rape kits required in each hospital. The provision of rape kits is a competency of the SAPS. However as Department of Health we take Gender based violence very seriously and it is our duty to ensure that these rape kits are available at all times to execute evidence collection at our health facilities.
We are therefore working closely together with SAPS to ensure that rape kits are always available. These kits are then delivered to the health facilities by the SAPS, for collection of evidence by health professionals, during physical examination of the survivors of sexual violence. The evidence collected by health professional using these rape kits, is then taken by SAPS to the Police Forensic Laboratory for DNA analysis.
(3) Yes, hospital staff in emergency wards is trained in processing a rape victim.
The Department of health provides service at all hospitals to manage and process survivors of rape. This is done through:
Health professionals provide the following services to survivors of rape:
(4) No, hospitals are not precluded from processing a rape survivor if that person has not given a statement at a police station first. Survivors of rape have a choice of which authority they wish to access first. We however have noted that majority of rape survivors access the health facility first before they report the matter to a police station and are not dismissed at all.
END.