The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007 (Act No. 32 of 2007; also referred to as the Sexual Offences Act) is an act of the

Parliament of South Africa The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature; under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameral Parliament comprises a National Assembly and a National Council of Provinces. The current twenty-seve ...

that reformed and codified the law relating to sex offences. It repealed various

common law crime Common law offences are crimes under English criminal law, the related criminal law of some Commonwealth countries, and under some U.S. State laws. They are offences under the common law, developed entirely by the law courts, having no specific ...

s (including rape and

indecent assault Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault. England and Wales Indecent assault was a broad ...

) and replaced them with statutory crimes defined on a gender-neutral basis. It expanded the definition of rape, previously limited to vaginal sex, to include all non-consensual penetration; and it equalised the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...

for heterosexual and homosexual sex at 16. The act provides various services to the victims of sexual offences, including free

post-exposure prophylaxis Post-exposure prophylaxis, also known as post-exposure prevention (PEP), is any preventive medical treatment started after exposure to a pathogen in order to prevent the infection from occurring. COVID-19 In 2021, the FDA has approved bamlanivi ...

for HIV, and the ability to obtain a court order to compel HIV testing of the alleged offender. It also created the

National Register for Sex Offenders The National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO) is a sex offender registry in South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of ...

, which records the details of those convicted of sexual offences against children or people who are mentally disabled.

List of offences

The following offences are prohibited by the act. * Rape (sec. 3) * Compelled rape (sec. 4) *

Sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

(sec. 5) * Compelled sexual assault (sec. 6) * Compelled self-sexual assault (sec. 7) * Compelling or causing a person 18 years or older to witness a sexual offence, a sexual act, or self-masturbation (sec. 8) * Exposing or displaying or causing the exposure or display of genital organs, anus or female breasts to a person 18 years or older ( flashing) (sec. 9) * Exposing or displaying or causing the exposure or display of

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...

to a person 18 years or older (sec. 10) * Engaging the sexual services of a person 18 years or older (sec. 11) *

Incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

(sec. 12) * Bestiality (sec. 13) * Committing a sexual act with a corpse (

necrophilia Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving Cadaver, corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) ...

) (sec. 14) * Committing an act of consensual sexual penetration with a child (

statutory rape In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent (the age required to legally consent to the behavior). Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual ...

) (sec. 15) * Committing an act of consensual sexual violation with a child (statutory sexual assault) (sec. 16) * Sexual exploitation of a child; being involved in, furthering, benefiting from, or living from the earnings of the sexual exploitation of a child; or promoting child sex tours (sec. 17) * Sexual grooming of a child or promoting the sexual grooming of a child (sec. 18) * Exposing or displaying or causing the exposure or display of child pornography or pornography to a child (sec. 19) * Using a child for or benefiting from child pornography (sec. 20) * Compelling or causing a child to witness a sexual offence, a sexual act or self-masturbation (sec. 21) * Exposing or displaying or causing the exposure or display of genital organs, anus or female breasts to a child (sec. 22) * Sexual exploitation of a person who is mentally disabled; being involved in, furthering, benefiting from, or living from the earnings of the sexual exploitation of a person who is mentally disabled; or promoting sex tours with persons who are mentally disabled (sec. 23) * Sexual grooming of a person who is mentally disabled or promoting the sexual grooming of a person who is mentally disabled (sec. 24) * Exposing or displaying or causing the exposure or display of child pornography or pornography to a person who is mentally disabled (sec. 25) * Using, or benefiting from using, a person who is mentally disabled for pornographic purposes. (sec. 26)

Constitutional challenges

In May 2012 the

Western Cape High Court The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over th ...

ruled that many of the sections of the act were not enforceable because they did not prescribe specific

sentences ''The Four Books of Sentences'' (''Libri Quattuor Sententiarum'') is a book of theology written by Peter Lombard in the 12th century. It is a systematic compilation of theology, written around 1150; it derives its name from the ''sententiae'' o ...

for the crimes, which violated the

principle of legality The principle of legality in criminal law was developed in the eighteenth century by the Italian criminal lawyer Cesare Beccaria and holds that no one can only be convicted of a crime without a previously published legal text which clearly describe ...

("''

nulla poena sine lege ''Nulla poena sine lege'' (Latin for "no penalty without law", Anglicized pronunciation: ) is a legal principle which states that one cannot be punished for doing something that is not prohibited by law. This principle is accepted and codified in ...

''"). In July, the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which ruled that courts have the discretion to impose an appropriate sentence in each case. In the same month,

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

passed an amendment to close the potential loophole. In an October 2013 judgment, the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

found the statutory rape and statutory sexual assault provisions to be unconstitutional to the extent that they made it a crime for children between 12 and 16 to engage in consensual sexual activities with other children in the same age range. In 2015, Parliament amended the law so that consensual sex between two children between 12 and 16, or between a child under 16 and one over 16 if the age difference is less than two years, is no longer a crime. In June 2018, the unanimous Constitutional Court found that the twenty-year

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

on sexual offenses was unconstitutional.

References

External links

Official text of the act as enacted
(PDF)
Text of the act with amendments
{{LGBT in South Africa Sex crimes in South Africa Sex laws in South Africa South African legislation 2007 in South African law Sex offender registration LGBT law in South Africa 2007 in LGBT history