GBV victim slams eight-year wait for justice as case drags
· Citizen
A gender-based violence (GBV) victim from Pretoria said there was nothing to celebrate this Women’s Month after the case against her former boyfriend has been dragging along for eight years and counting, with no justice in sight.
Izette Venter said she was now just a statistic because nobody cares, not the state, not the magistrate, nobody.
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GBV victim’s case dragged for eight years without justice
“Nothing happens. It’s been two years after the state closed their arguments and we have not moved one step past that. It’s just excuses from there,” she added.
Venter said all those people who lie on their backs in November in a GBV awareness protest are wasting their time.
Venter was booked off from work for six weeks after the attack and had to undergo an eye operation after spending five days in the intensive care unit.
“Everyone who made promises has simply disappeared. I am disheartened. The state closed its case in January last year, yet the defence still hasn’t started presenting its case.
“Items went missing from the docket and certain procedures had to be repeated.
“The defence was supposed to start their case in February but, instead, brought an application to have the matter struck from the roll – an application that had been rejected the previous year but had disappeared from the docket.
Wolmarans also waiting for justice
“They applied to have the case struck off again, but it was postponed to July.
“In July, the advocate failed to appear and merely submitted a medical certificate, so the case was postponed once more – to November,” she said.
Louise Wolmarans was also waiting for justice to be served after she opened a case against her ex in 2021 when he attacked her.
Wolmarans, who was in a “toxic relationship” from 2017 until the day of the attack, said her ex convinced her to take out loans amounting to R500 000 on his behalf, but never paid her back.
In October 2021, her ex attacked her and after she called the police, she was arrested.
When she was released the next day, she tried to commit suicide. “Everything went black in front of me. I bought the strongest pills I could and drove to my father’s grave, where I drank as many as I could. I was done.
Opening case in 2021 following attack
“While I was lying on my father’s grave, a man appeared and told me they were going to help me,” she said.
Wolmarans said her mother tracked her location and managed to get her to hospital.
“They had to pump my stomach and I was transferred to a facility for a month because it was an attempted suicide,” she said.
When Wolmarans was discharged in November 2021, she laid charges of grievous bodily harm and attempted murder against her ex-boyfriend.
“He has only been in court twice, while the case was postponed yet again,” she added.
University of Limpopo criminology and criminal justice department head Prof Witness Maluleke said GBV in South Africa continues to be a thorny pandemic without a clear cure.
Experts say GBV remains a thorny pandemic in SA
“Waiting for justice for seven years can’t be justified, as signs of re-victimisation become evident and it is concerning,” he added.
Maluleke said many GBV cases remain unsolved and the fight against it is not promising.
Criminal law expert Cornelia van Graan said SA has not necessarily lost the fight, but it was losing too many battles because the response was still too slow, fragmented and poorly implemented.
“Courts have serious backlogs and institutional delays and these issues severely impact the rendering of service and justice,” added Van Graan.