Prioritise sensitive rape cases

Imagine being told your loved one was raped and killed. As if that was not enough, you end up waiting two years to bury her.

This is the story of a Mpumalanga family who we are reporting about in today’s edition – their daughter was raped and killed. Noxolo Mdluli’s body, along with four others, were found buried in a shallow grave in 2019 after alleged killer Julius Mndawe confessed and turned himself in to the police in Masoyi village, near Hazyview.

Her mother, Thembisile, said the delay in DNA results had resulted in their waiting two years to bury her – and authorities were not even updating them regularly on the progress of the samples. “We have to ask [the police] and we are told they are still waiting too. This is painful to us because now we are being victimised by the state. How can we be mourning for two years?” Mdluli asked.

The five women’s corpses were dug up from Mndawe’s yard, and he is due to appear in court again tomorrow. Police said they had taken the samples abroad for testing and were still waiting for the results.

The delay in DNA results is not only a problem affecting the Mdlulis. NPA spokesperson in Mpumalanga Monica Nyuswa said 80% of their cases were waiting for DNA results.

We also speak to two mothers of rape victims, aged two and six, whose cases cannot progress as the state waits for the DNA outcome to link the suspects.

This is sad as these families deserve justice and closure. Justice delayed is justice denied. Worse for Mdluli and others, they cannot even hold funerals to bury their loved ones – and that has also delayed their grieving process and closure. We expect cases like this to be prioritised because of how sensitive they are. These samples should have skipped the queue to ensure that bodies are released to the families in time to bury them.

Why send samples to Switzerland if they cannot commit to a time frame for results? Our state facilities have abandoned the Ubuntu principles, it is more like “do what you can, when you can” now. If this was not the case, the government would deal with the backlog in its labs by employing more people and ensuring there is enough equipment to process many samples in less than two weeks. We call on the department of health to sort out this mess.