When a survivor files a complaint and the police opens a case relating to it, the police are required to arrange a medical examination. There are more than 50 state-run, one-stop facilities across South Africa with a duty to provide these services to survivors. They are known as the Thuthuzela Care Centers (TCCs), and their mandate is to offer emergency medical care, HIV prevention, counselling, and follow-up support.
However, TCCs are largely inaccessible to many marginalized communities, and less than half of the survivors surveyed received a medical examination following their assaults. Some said they were not told that a medical examination was required. Others were instructed far too late, meaning that critical evidence had been lost. Survivors also reported that the medical staff lacked empathy, understanding, or knowledge of the necessary forms, which prevented them from opening a case because they could not get the assistance to do so. Nearly two-thirds of survivors also reported that they did not receive psycho-social support or trauma counselling which are critical to help survivors deal with the long-term mental, emotional, and physical impact of gender-based violence.
Survivor from Khayelitsha
A woman from Khayelitsha, who wished to remain anonymous, said her ex-boyfriend beat her so badly that he broke her arm. She escaped his house in just her pajama pants, and at 2 a.m., she walked to the police station topless to report the crime. The police told her she needed to go to a clinic, without offering her any clothing to cover herself with or a ride to the clinic, which was twenty minutes away. Instead, a stranger who was at the police station to report a crime eventually offered her his tracksuit top, and she made her way to the clinic on foot.
Once she arrived at the clinic, staff told her that she would have to wait until the morning to get an X-ray of her arm. The following morning, after an X-ray confirmed her arm was broken, the clinic redirected her to Khayelitsha Hospital for further treatment. The clinic did not have an ambulance. She was told she would have to pay for a taxi to get there. She had no money and had to return home to get the money for the taxi. Once she got to the hospital, she was admitted, but no one ever asked about the circumstances of her injury or offered any counselling.
“No one asked me what happened, or we’re going to do like counselling for you, or how do you feel?”
Survivor from Mamre
A 22-year-old woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she received immediate care after her rape, but that medical staff did not treat her for an infection that was likely a result of the attack. She reported that she had to wait one year before she could get treatment from another provider.
She also said she had initially been assigned a counselor she knew personally, which made her uncomfortable, and when she finally received a replacement, the new counselor did not respond to her.
“To this day I will send my counsellor messages because I have to make an appointment with her… and she will not respond.”