DA: Mthethwa must explain about stats
2011-08-21 22:01
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Cape Town - The DA wants Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa summoned to appear before Parliament's portfolio committee on women, youth, children and people with disabilities to explain why his department does not keep figures on domestic violence crimes.
"Minister of Social Development [Bathabile Dlamini] has indicated in a reply to a parliamentary question that government does not keep reliable statistics on domestic violence," DA MP Denise Robinson said in a statement on Sunday.
Such a committee meeting would give the minister a chance to explain "numerous other deficiencies" in the police's approach to domestic violence.
These included, among other things, "inadequate training" of police officers to when it came to implementing the Domestic Violence Act, and their "widespread failure" to protect the victims of domestic violence.
"I will today [Sunday] write to the chairperson of the portfolio committee, Dorothy Ramodibe, requesting that the minister of police be summoned before the committee to explain why the police do not keep domestic violence statistics," Robinson said.
In her written reply to the parliamentary question, tabled last week, Dlamini said "the official crime statistics as provided by the SA Police Service do not provide a category for domestic violence".
August is Women's Month in South Africa.
- SAPA
