Abstract
In 1996 Dullah Omar, the then-Minister of Justice, established a project committee in the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) to investigate sexual offences against children. Eleven years later, having widened the scope of the legal reforms to include adults, the National Assembly finally passed the muchdelayed Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill (SO Bill 10 Nov 06 (SOBPC06)) on 23 May 2007. The Bill is ambitious, its objects being: ‘To afford complainants of sexual offences the maximum and least traumatising protection that the law can provide, to introduce measures which seek to enable the relevant organs of state to give full effect to the provisions of this Act and to combat and, ultimately, eradicate the relatively high incidence of sexual offences committed in the Republic’ (Sexual Offences Bill 2006: 9). This article briefly sets out some of the Bill’s content and then examines whether or not the Bill, in its current form, does indeed meet the high aims set for itself.
Highlights
This framework is intended to ‘protect[ing] complainants of sexual offences and their families from secondary victimisation and trauma by establishing a co-operative response between all government departments involved in implementing an effective, responsive and sensitive criminal justice system relating to sexual offences;’ and ‘promot[ing] the spirit of batho pele in respect of service delivery in the criminal justice system dealing with sexual offences’ (Sexual Offences Bill 2006: 9)
New sexual offences The new definition of rape contained in the Bill states that ‘Any person (A) who unlawfully and intentionally commits an act of sexual penetration with a complainant (B), without the consent of B, is guilty of the offence of rape.’
‘Sexual penetration’ will include any act causing any penetration of the genital organs, or anus, or mouth of the victim with a penis, or any other body part or object
Summary
This framework is intended to ‘protect[ing] complainants of sexual offences and their families from secondary victimisation and trauma by establishing a co-operative response between all government departments involved in implementing an effective, responsive and sensitive criminal justice system relating to sexual offences;’ and ‘promot[ing] the spirit of batho pele in respect of service delivery in the criminal justice system dealing with sexual offences’ (Sexual Offences Bill 2006: 9). Three new crimes recognising how people can be forced into performing sexual acts are introduced: compelled rape, compelled self-sexual assault and compelling persons over the age of 18 to witness a sexual offence or act. New sexual offences against children ‘Sexual grooming of children’ is another new crime established by the Bill and refers to the process through which offenders sexualise children over time.
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