The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes SAPS’s rectification of its controversial English-only language instruction that incorrectly ordered police officers in the Northern Cape to only take down statements of victims of crime in English.
In correspondence received from Northern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola today, she concedes that the language instruction was in contravention of a previous order of the Kimberley High Court and states that it was immediately repealed, after being brought to her attention.
The DA appreciates the urgency with which Otola handled this matter, after personally raising it with her on Tuesday. Such errors have the potential to significantly violate victims’ rights.
That Northern Cape SAPS will proceed to uphold a functional level of multilingualism to ensure that the rights of victims of crime are protected, victims are treated with dignity and all criminal cases stand a fair chance at successful prosecution and conviction, is a victory for human rights month.