Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

CHAPTER 11
Department of Police, South African
Police Services and the National
Prosecuting Authority
Introduction
The SAPS, the Department of Police (DoP) and the NPA are responsible for the protection
of the following rights of vulnerable children and their families:
● the right to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation and
exploitative labour practices; 103
● the right not to be detained, except as a measure of last resort in which case, only
for the shortest appropriate period of time, and separately from persons older than
18, and in a manner that takes into account the age of the child. 104
Section 28 of the Constitution, in line with the ACRWC and the UNCRC, guarantees all
children the right to protection from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation. The
realisation of this right depends on a range of government departments working together
to prevent, investigate, prosecute and minimise the harmful impact on children of acts of
maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation.
Child abuse, neglect and maltreatment are criminal acts in terms of both common law and
the legislative framework. Two of the agencies responsible for the prosecution of cases
of child neglect and abuse are the SAPS and the NPA. The mandate for both is not just
to investigate, combat and prosecute crimes against children, but to do so through the
provision of the relevant services in a manner that is ‘sensitive [and] endearing to the child
victim’ 105 and that reduces secondary victimisation ‘within the criminal justice system…
and…[by] adopting a victim-centred approach’. 106
The obligations on these two agencies to provide child-sensitive and victim-centred
services translate into the duty to:
● provide comprehensive, inter-sectoral and integrated support services to victims of
crime to ensure a victim-friendly criminal justice system and to make sure that the
negative impacts on victims is reduced (DoSD 2009b);
● provide complainants the maximum and least traumatising protection the law can
provide;
● provide protection for complainants from secondary victimisation and trauma by
establishing cooperation between departments;
● provide proper recognition of the needs of victims of sexual offences through
timeous, effective and non-discriminatory investigation and prosecution. 107
103 Section 28(1)(c)(d), South African Constitution; ACRWC, Article 16; UNCRC, Articles 19, 27, 32, 324
104 Section 28(1)(g), South African Constitution; ACRWC, Article 17; UNCRC, Article 37
105 SAPS website: http://www.saps.gov.za/org_profiles/core_function_components/fcs/establish.htm
106 NPA website: http://www.npa.gov.za/ReadContent412.aspx
107 Section 2, Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, No. 32 of 2007
205