As South Africa celebrates the Women’s Month, the government is on a massive drive to conscientise communities about the effects of gender-based violence, harassment, sexism and other ills.
President Cyril Ramaphosa led the auspicious Women’s Day celebrations earlier this month, held in Pofadder, Northern Cape.
In his keynote address, Ramaphosa said as South Africans celebrated the gains made during the 30 years of freedom and democracy, the country was deeply traumatised by violence against women and children.
“This violence is a betrayal of our Constitution. It is an affront to our common humanity. In recent years, we have worked together to fight gender-based violence and femicide,” Ramaphosa said at the time.
“Guided by our National Strategic Plan, we have introduced new laws that protect survivors of gender-based violence, improve the response of the police, and ensure harsher sentences for perpetrators.”
He said government has introduced more victim-friendly services at police stations across the country.
More importantly, the president referred to the first-ever national survey on gender-based violence done by the South Africa Human Sciences Research Council which has just been completed.
“Around 13 percent of women who had ever been in an intimate relationship reported that they had experienced economic abuse at the hands of their partner,” he said.
“This is why we need to address the massive inequality in income between men and women. On average, women earn a quarter of their income from grants, compared to a far lower percentage for men,” said Ramaphosa.
“We must therefore create more jobs and other economic opportunities for women. So they are less vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.”
IOL has been running the scammed series, where numerous South African women have now joined hands, speaking out against the rampant romance scams. The women who are often breadwinners in their households, are left destitute, emotionally traumatised with some women reportedly committing suicide after being scammed.
Some of the defrauded women are members of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
However, the victims of romance scams have often felt like ignored by authorities, particularly as the women even struggle to open a case at police stations.
Yes, being scammed is definitely abuse — economic abuse to be exact — which is an aspect of gender-based violence.
Scammers often target vulnerable individuals, majority being women, and use manipulation, coercion, and exploitation to extract financial or personal information.
Pretoria woman, Sbongile Dlamini who was scammed of nearly R1 million about three years ago, insists her trauma was worsened when she went to a police station in Pretoria, seeking to register a case of fraud.
“As soon as I realised that I had been scammed, I was in disbelief but when it eventually sunk in, I rushed to the nearest police station to alert the police with all the hope in me that they would advise and assist in helping me catch my scammer. To my surprise, I was in shock when I realised that police were actually amused by my story as they called each to hear my story,” she told IOL.
“I turned to be their greatest joke for the day. I was even asked to write the statement myself as they all didn't want to involve themselves in what they labelled as ‘stupid act of love’. Scams are essentially part gender-based violence as we have suffered economic abuse.”
“Scams can have severe consequences, including financial loss, emotional distress, and erosion of trust,” she said.
For Bonang Madiba the response from the police left her shell shocked.
“I was told by the Durban North police that they will not waste government resources to look for James ‘Prince’, because it is a waste of time. This I was told by the station commander himself,” Madiba said.
“Then at Durban Central police station, the superior at the station said I was going to have worms coming out of my body because I am ‘tjatjarag’ and it will be a lesson to love South African men and stop running after amakwerekwere, (derogatory slur against foreign nationals, particularly those from other African countries),” she told IOL.
“He said this while looking at me from toe to head. The police refused to accompany me to the apartment which the scammer claimed was his. Basically, the scammer escaped under my watch.”
After she finally managed to open a case, and within five days, she received an SMS saying her case had been closed because there were no leads.
“I was shocked and I asked investigating officer. Until now, he has never responded to my messages,” said Bonang.
In Gladys Mabasa’s case, a week after realising that she has been scammed in the name of love, she soon gathered her last strength and headed to the Pretoria Central police station to open a case.
“I remember it was on August 3, 2023. The policewoman who was listening to my story started calling other other police officers to come and listen,” she told IOL.
“She told them that they should come and listen to a woman who gave her boyfriend money and now she wants to open a case. I was told straight that I don't have a case because it was ‘mjolo’ issues.”
Frantic, Mabasa said she started calling police stations in other provinces particularly North West.
“I had done my research and contacted police in North West. I actually contacted them after seeing that they had registered breakthroughs in similar romance scams,” she said.
“On another day, I returned to SAPS Pretoria Central again and was referred to detectives. After narrating my story, the police asked me to produce proof, which I did not have. They said I willingly gave my money away, so it was our mutual agreement and my story does not have criminal elements.”
On another day, Mabasa said a police detective asked what she would give her if the fraudster was caught.
“The humiliation I suffered at SAPS Pretoria Central was out of this world. Police said South African women do not listen,” said Mabasa.
“They said instead of giving the money to my family members, I gave it away to foreigners. However, through assistance of SAPS in North West, I escalated my matter to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.”
The persistent woman later managed to open a case with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks and she also hired a private investigator.
Another victim, Mandisa who lost R450,000 said she will live with the trauma of being seriously hurt by someone she trusted.
“The pain is like being shot by a gun, I can assure you. You suffer the pain of losing your money, and on the other hand you live with being ridiculed and attacked by community members until you die,” the professional nurse told IOL.
Queries were sent to the South African Police Service but at the time of publishing, no response was received.
IOL