Government is at it again, trying to regulate everything to death. This time, it is making it a crime to support victims of sexual, domestic and criminal violence without official permission to do so.
Tomorrow – 7 October 2020 – is the last day for public comment on the Victim Support Services Bill. The Bill’s stated purpose sounds like a potpourri of good intentions conveyed with only the best buzzwords:
‘To provide a statutory framework for the promotion and upholding of the rights of victims of violent crime; to prevent secondary victimisation of people by providing protection, response, care and support and re-integration programmes; to provide a framework for integrated and multi-disciplinary co-ordination of victim empowerment and support; to provide for designation and registration of victim empowerment and support services centres and service providers; to provide for the development and implementation of victim empowerment services norms and minimum standards; to provide for the specific roles and responsibilities of relevant departments and other stakeholders; and to provide for matters connected therewith.’
What that means, however, is that the government wants to take full control over the entire process of dealing with victims of sexual, domestic and criminal violence.
It will require everyone who provides physical, psychological, spiritual or social services to a victim to be formally accredited to offer victim support, by the Department of Social Development (DSD). Any person who offers any of these services without such accreditation will be guilty of a crime punishable by a fine, imprisonment of up to a year, or both.
Criminals, all
A doctor, nurse or a police officer who provides counselling without permission will be committing a crime. A pastor or priest who prays with a victim will be committing a crime. Anyone who offers shelter to an abused person will be committing a crime. People who run community support groups will be committing a crime. If you’re a rape survivor, and have the temerity to counsel other rape survivors, you could be imprisoned for it.
The support programme provided by an accredited service provider or a government department must include, at least, medical assistance and care, psycho-social services, witness protection services, and any other relevant services.
Each facility must comply with national norms and standards, yet to be promulgated, that must cover not only basic building, safety and hygiene standards, but also dictates the content of victim-support service programmes. If anyone thinks they have better ideas than the government bureaucrats on how to support victims of rape, domestic abuse or other crime, they won’t be permitted to implement them.
The costs of meeting these standards, and obtaining and maintaining formal accreditation, will place a heavy additional burden upon these victim support facilities.
Every facility will be required to submit full financial statements and annual reports to the government, and if they thought they had any independence left, the minister of social development will also be able to prescribe the management and control structure of any victim-support services facility.
Tender mercies of the state
Of all the evils one can wish on a victim of rape or other violent crime, surely being thrown upon the tender mercies of the state must be the worst. The DSD cannot even hand out cash grants, let alone manage the kind of medical and psychological support that a crime victim requires.
This will decimate the very large ecosystem of charities, NGOs, religious organisations and community support groups that presently provides services to the victims of violent crime.
It will impose very significant regulatory, financial and operational burdens upon these organisations, many of which will simply fold under the pressure. This will put many victims who are presently receiving support, at risk.
The DSD doesn’t provide anywhere near the levels of care that are required. Even the private sector doesn’t. Taking an axe to the private victim support organisations, in the hope that the department will rapidly roll out new facilities to replace all the non-governmental capacity that will be lost, and then some, is naïve.
Collective outrage
It seems reasonable to improve the level of support offered by government institutions such as hospitals, police stations and Khuseleka One-Stop Centres. That should be the focus of the DSD. Instead, under the pretext of ‘doing something’ about sexual and domestic violence, the government is taking control over the entire network of support organisations that already exists in the private sector.
What will happen is that thousands of victims will simply fall through the cracks, and, for want of government-approved support services, will receive no support services at all.
Rape Crisis speaks of ‘collective outrage’ over this Bill. In a statement on its website, it says: ‘Victims of crime have suffered enough, they should have the right to access any and all of the services that provide them the support that they need. What the Victim Support Services Bill should be doing is protecting and legislating that right.’
I couldn’t agree more. This is yet another example of government over-reach, promising to do things that it will never achieve, and criminalising any attempts by others to plug the gaps.
There is one day left to act. Submit comments via email to Siza Magangoe on Sizam@dsd.gov.za, Luyanda Mtshotshisa on LuyandaMt@socdev.gov.za, or Anna Sithole on Annas@dsd.gov.za.
[Picture: Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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