A woman who claims to be a victim of domestic violence feels the police did not do their job properly after she was allegedly assaulted and thrown out of her house.
Preferring to remain anonymous, she said like other couples she and her boyfriend had their fights and disagreements about certain things, but she realised something was amiss when he first slapped her across the face.
But, like so many other women, she just carried on with her life and kept her head down. The next time a fight broke out she was assaulted again and she decided to stop arguing back.
“The next time he started becoming aggressive again I decided to remain quiet and say nothing. This just made him more aggressive and he assaulted me.”
On 10 February, she was allegedly assaulted again, and the neighbours heard the raucous and contacted the police. “He locked me out of the house on this occasion and I went to my neighbour’s house to wait for the police to arrive.”
After waiting for five hours she asked her neighbour to take her to Somerset West Police Station. “We came back from the station with three officers. The officers demanded that my boyfriend open the door and let me in. He then explained to the police he is hard-working and I have no income, and I provoked him and I am a troublemaker.”
She said the police then forced her to pack her belongings and stay with her neighbour. “I pay half of the rent, so why should I be forced out of the house?”
The woman said the police also asked her why she took so long to act and why she phoned them only on 10 February.
“They (police) did not even look at my injuries or photos of my previous injuries. This makes me think women are not taken seriously when it comes to complaints about gender-based violence [GBV].”
According to Sergeant Suzan Jantjies, spokesperson for Somerset West police, the victim had registered a complaint following the incident.
“There is an internal investigation into the matter,” she said. “This office cannot release information about internal investigations.”
