CRIME NEWS - The DA’s unannounced spot checks at four Western Cape police stations yesterday, Thursday, 11 December, have now confirmed what SAPS leadership has been denying for weeks: the numbers provided by the Western Cape SAPS management on rape-kit availability are grossly inflated, factually incorrect and completely misleading.
According to the certificate signed by Major General Jojo on 2 December, the following kits were supposedly available at these four stations:
- Sea Point: D1 [59] | D7 [50]
- Cape Town Central: D1 [41] | D7 [82]
- Paarl: D1 [5] | D7 [65]
- Athlone: D1 [20] | D7 [0]
But the DA’s oversight has exposed a completely different reality:
- Sea Point: only 4 D1 and 1 D7 kits
- Cape Town Central: zero D1 kits
- Paarl: zero D1 kits and zero D7 kits
- Athlone: zero usable D1 kits; the 60 D1 and 70 D7 kits in storage were all expired
This is a deliberate misrepresentation.
Someone, somewhere, is cooking the books and lying to the public - and they were lying throughout the 16 Days of Activism while government pretended to run a campaign to protect women and children.
The certificate issued by Western Cape management is riddled with inaccuracies. It states that stations submit “weekly updates” in terms of the Divisional SCM protocol of 12 November 2019, but that protocol was changed to monthly reporting years ago.
Worse still, the certificate lists a Captain Wyngaard as the accounting officer for Cape Town Central, even though he retired a year ago.
During the DA’s oversight visit, the station confirmed that the new officer’s name was provided to the Provincial Office in January 2025, yet the certificate was never updated.
It was further confirmed that stations in the Cape Town metropolitan area have not received stock from the National Supply Chain office since 2024 - clearly a result of the inflated numbers provided in their certificates.
This proves that the Western Cape Provincial Commissioner’s office is rubber-stamping inaccurate information, not verifying it.
These inflated numbers were then supplied to the National Supply Chain Office and used by SAPS spokespeople this week to wrongly assure the public that “there is stock in the Western Cape.”
The contradictions now speak for themselves:
- SAPS says there is stock; stations say there is none.
- SAPS claims there is no crisis; expired kits and empty shelves prove otherwise.
- SAPS accuses others of misinformation; their own certificate contains multiple factual errors.
The DA will continue its oversight today and, in the days ahead. We will demand a full explanation for the misinformation being generated by the Provincial Commissioner’s office and fed to the National Office and more importantly, fed to vulnerable women and children who rely on these kits for justice.
Empty shelves at Provincial Supply Chain store
The following is an excerpt of a statement issued on 9 December by the parliamentary communication services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron and a member of the National Council of Provinces’ Select Committee on Security and Justice, Nicholas Gotsell, today (9 December) found a shortage of rape kits at the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Provincial Supply Chain store in Epping.
The two members conducted a random, unannounced oversight visit after noting media reports claiming a shortage of the D1 kit that is used to collect evidence in rape cases.
During their visit, they found no D1 and D7(rape) kits available for both adults and children at the supply chain store. Their visit confirmed media reports when they found the shelves for these crucial sexual assault evidence collection kits empty.
Cameron said the empty shelves contradict the SAPS’ official assurances. He said the unavailability of rape kits for both adults and children means that if any child gets sexually assaulted, then there is nothing available to do the necessary tests, and that is unacceptable. He said the shortage in the Western Cape is because of the national division of supply chain management. “There is a back order in the entire province of the Western Cape, and this is a direct failure of national supply chain management,” he said.
‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’
