Only an eighth of these cases are reported to the police.
This is only one of the shocking statistics made available during Tuesday's safety summit that kicked off the George's Safe City Project. "Enough is enough," said Executive Mayor Charles Standers in his opening speech. "In the words of Henry Ford: 'Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success'. This should be our primary objective, not only with this summit, but with every common challenge that faces us."
Standers said the summit marks the beginning of an integrated focus by all relevant participants, stakeholders and role players to transform George to become the safe city as envisaged in council's strategic goal. "Our emphasis should be on violence prevention, government, business, organisational and individual accountability, community mobilisation and participation for women's and children's empowerment. This will lead to the improvement of neighbourhoods and the urban environment in general. We have to understand that women, children and men experience life and its challenges differently.
We have reached a defining moment where we have to stand shoulder to shoulder and put our differences aside to secure a safe city."
Miltonette Cupido from the South African Local Government Assosiation (Salga) said that statistics show that 27 per cent of South Africans believe that if a women is raped it is because of something she said or did, or even because of the clothes she wears. "In 14 per cent of the cases the rapist is a husband or boyfriend, or an ex-husband or ex-boyfriend."
She added that in South Africa a women or child is raped every 17 seconds.
Lieutenant-Colonel Etienne Terblanche from the George Police also gave shocking statistics about crime in George. He said that during the 2012 book year the police had 51 821 complaints with 75 per cent of the complaints occurring during weekends. "In most of the domestic violence cases, only the children are sober when the police arrive at the household."
Dr Quinton Johnson from the Nelson Mandela Metropolotan University (NMMU) said: "When violence doesn't want to fade away, we must resist. We must educate ourselves for a safer city."
Advocate Muller Redelinghuys from the National Prosecuting Authority expressed his feeling that as a collective, Georgians can make the city safer. "We can't allow that our children are prevented from going to the corner shop for fear of rape."
According to Tom Willems, circuit team manager for the Department of Education in Eden and the Klein Karoo, the safety summit is long overdue. "Their are 120 000 learners in the region of which 34 000 are from George. "We are responsible for them," he said.
Pastor Laurie Edwall warned that there are a lot of broken hearts out there. "They must get help before it becomes a crisis. Honour each other," she added.
Guests at Tuesday's safety summit during a lighter moment.
ARTICLE AND PHOTOS: CHRISTO VERMAAK, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
