The Democratic Alliance has noted with extreme concern the Cape Town High Court full bench judgement
highlighting what appears to be a fatal flaw in the Criminal Procedure
(Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 32 of 2007.
On
Friday, the Cape High Court held that certain sections of the Act,
affecting 29 sexual offences, did not contain any penalty clauses, and
therefore nobody can be charged with any of these acts, as they do not
constitute an offence. It also has huge implications for people already
convicted of such offences.
In addition, this completely
undermines the intention of the Act, which was to criminalise behaviours
which were previously not crimes, such as sexual grooming and compelled
rape.
This
is a devastating blow to the fight against sexual offences, which are
at alarming levels in our country. Thousands of women and children are
raped and sexually assaulted in South Africa every day.
DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Debbie Schafer, will
be writing to the chairperson of the Justice Portfolio Committee,
requesting him to urgently intervene in this matter, in discussion with
the Minister of Justice. It is vital that a Bill be tabled as a matter
of the utmost urgency to rectify this apparent anomaly.
For some time now, the DA has been pushing for the
re-establishment of the Specialised Sexual Offences Courts, which have
been decreasing in number seemingly because of the unwillingness of
magistrates to specialise in these crimes.
However, in the
light of this judgement, the most urgent task at hand is correction of
this Act in order to avoid any further people escaping being charged
with any of these sexual offences.
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