A rape survivor from Khayelitsha, who wished to remain anonymous, has been waiting since 2017 for the conviction of her perpetrator.
“We went to court; the perpetrator did not show up. Then the case was postponed, and then they gave us another date, and the other date came, then I went to… the court. Again, he did not show...
Varity Bester from Montagu, who wished to be identified, reported spending years fighting for justice both in her own assault case against her brother and in her daughter’s rape case against a family friend. She said she has consistently had to deal with delays and other issues presented by court proceedings. Two years into her daughter’s case, she...
Lorraine Saman from Mitchell’s Plain, who wished to be identified, said that her daughter was killed by her ex-boyfriend while at home with her children in October 2016. Lorraine’s daughter had “reported him to the police but nothing was done about it.” Had the police provided her daughter with the urgent help that she had requested from them, including...
Nicky from Atlantis, who wished to be identified only by her first name, reported suffering years of abuse at the hands of her partner, who was also the father to her three children. She was reluctant to pursue a case because she was reliant on him for a place for her and her children to live.
Eventually, things got so...
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...
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...
Liezel Duiter, who wished to be identified, shared the story of her daughter who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend and the father of her child. Liezel’s daughter had endured abuse by her ex-boyfriend on multiple occasions before the incident but never reported it “because she was a very quiet, to herself, type of person.” When the ex-boyfriend found out...
A survivor from Atlantis, who wished to remain anonymous, reported that she endured years of abuse at the hands of her partner. She told our researchers that police failed to respond to multiple phone calls, even when she was in immediate danger. In one incident, she had locked herself and her children in a room as he tried to...
TrialWatch monitored the trial of Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni and released a report exposing her sham trial. She was then freed and pardoned following the international attention drawn to her case. TrialWatch Expert Baroness Helena Kennedy KC – Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute – graded the trial a “D” and our findings on the...