Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Our system lets us down...if only we didn't take that 10 minute break

I spent the whole day at the Wynberg Magistrates Court to assist a victim in obtaining a protection order. Due to various reasons, we could only get there at 10:00 but I strode up confidentally to the domestic violence clerks office to announce our arrival. I was told that it was too late, we should have been there at 7:45, we need to return tomorrow. I explained that the situation was urgent but also that I was well aware that you can obtain a protection order from 8 to 4 and could not return tomorrow morning. Fortunately, she took note and placed us on the list...we were indeed last. After waiting for a few hours we both needed a break. I asked the clerk if there was sufficient time to pop out for a break, she said yes, so we did. We returned and waited some more until silence descended in the passageway and a door slammed closed. Curiously, I pop up off the hard wooden bench that we had been resting our tender derrières on to realize that it was the clerks office door that had been closed. I knock...I know they're in there, I can hear them. I knock some more. I yell out "hello"...silence descends once more. I can still faintly hear them inside but "clearly" it's 1 p.m. and they've gone on lunch and didn't inform anyone. Now I don't spend my days in court so I'm not sure if that's procedure but surely they should have said something. So...(sigh) we leave to return promptly at 14:00. The wait continues. People's names are still being called, there are some new faces, but some old faces too...we assume our time will be coming around soon. An hour later, and I pop into the clerks office to ask how much longer as I know there's still a long procedure to go through. I'm told that we were called just before lunch...3 times she called us she says. No amount of explaining helped, there's nothing she can do, she says, as the magistrate had already gone for the day and she still had clients to see! "But come back tomorrow", she says, "and be here at 7:45". "No", she answers to my question when I suggest that we be placed first on the list, "it's first come, first serve".

While I understand the theoretical and practical steps to obtaining protection orders, and have supported beneficiaries from farms obtain protection orders from local police stations, it was my first urban experience. While I also understand that for domestic violence clerks what I experienced today is a monotonous event for them...day in and day out, queues of people waiting to get pieces of paper that are meant to "put a stop to" abuse, to the point that I'm sure, victims of abuse no longer hold individual identities...I still think there should be some decency, understanding and sympathy for those who bare the brunt of these long waits.

I'm reminded of the many workshops we hold on domestic violence and all the submissions we present to Parliament on the failure of the implimentation of acts such as the Domestic Violence Act, where we warn the judicial system to not fall pray to the same mistakes. Last year we presented a submission to Parliament in partnership with the Women's Legal Centre, which while complimentating and aiding suggestions for an enhanced Protection from Harassment Bill, spoke of the failures experienced by women in obtaining protection orders. Obviously, as REACH works with farm and rural women, I was able to preach on about the far distances to court for rural farm women and the chances of not being attended to if a victim didn't arrive to court on time and how this impacted on her losing a days wage. And while I continued to preach on about "illiteracy", "low levels of education" and "language barriers" rendering application for protection orders and following through with subsequent legal procedures daunting for complainants and further how these factors increased difficulties in dealing with domestic violence clerks and magistrates...I had never experienced it personally until today when I too "wasted" a full-day; felt ill-informed, intimidated and while I was in a sense part of the system (in the work that we do), I was actually just another number...but that's me...what about the victim of abuse, the one I was supposed to help and support, who sat patiently the whole day crying gently as she recounted her horrific experiences of abuse and who tonight cannot go home AGAIN because she wasn't afforded the protection that she so desperatly needs! If only we hadn't taken that 10 minute break...

So we're up early tomorrow morning with grand ideas of getting there a whole 45 minutes earlier than 7:45...wonder if by this time tomorrow evening, she will be home, safe and sound.