Mthethwa: Rape response time is 12 minutes
2013-03-05 10:20
Cape Town - Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa says it takes less than 12 minutes for police to respond to a rape in progress in the Western Cape, the Cape Times reported on Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, Mthethwa said that responding to a complaint of rape which had already taken place, or to an attempted rape, took on average 15 minutes and 56 seconds.
The figures formed part of a written response on Monday to questions by National Council of Provinces member Onell de Beer.
The Cape Times reported that Rape Crisis director Kathleen Dey said it had received complaints about rape victims waiting a long time for a police vehicle to take them for tests.
"The matter of response time is a weird statistic as many rape survivors [take time] to come forward," she told the newspaper.
According to Mthethwa, the police stations with the highest number of recorded rapes in the Western Cape were Kraaifontein, Mitchells Plain, Harare, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Delft, Worcester, Nyanga, Mfuleni and Thembalethu.
The province had the fourth highest number of sexual offences in the country, at 9 153 last year. The highest was Gauteng at 12 419, followed by Kwazulu-Natal at 12 288, and the Eastern Cape at 9 239.
- SAPA
