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A few months ago in February I opened an assault case. Partially because the man is a violent drunk that hit me but also because of the trauma he puts his daughter through.
My first interaction with the Garsfontein police was after protecting 2 women from the man that ended up hitting me. The police that arrived at the scene refused to do anything and just said we have to go to the police station.
After a trip to the hospital and going to the police station, the police insisted that I need to get a J88 form from the hospital. After returning to the hospital, I was kindly informed that those forms are collected from the police station. I eventually returned to the police station and after speaking to senior officers it turns out no one at the front desk of the police station knew that the police supply the J88 forms.
Upon taking this form to the hospital and returning to explain the events of the night, I gave them the eye witness reports and the form, this wasn't enough as again I had to go find another senior officer that would finally take everything.
From here I had the luxury of having my case given to other officers that would call me and request that I explain everything from scratch. Eventually, now, 6 months later the original officer called me again. Was it good news? No, he admitted that they lost the paperwork of the case and would proceed to close it.
Never once did they properly get hold of the man that started the whole issue, and I only opened the case because I knew a lawsuit would ensue if I escalated the situation physically. The moral of the story is "Don't worry about the police, because they'll do nothing anyways".
What is unfortunate is I know the guy abuses the hell out of his daughter and the last thing I heard about her was her walking to neighbouring houses asking if she can stay there due to her dad getting drunk.
