Citation Act No. 32 of 2007 Date assented to 13 December 2007 | Date enacted 22 November 2007 | |
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Enacted by Parliament of South Africa Date commenced Chapters 1–4 and 7: 16 December 2007
Chapter 5: 21 March 2008
Chapter 6: 16 June 2008 | ||
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 that reformed and codified the law relating to sex offences. It repealed various common law crimes (including rape and indecent assault) and replaced them with statutory crimes defined on a gender-neutral basis.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 for heterosexual and homosexual sex at 16. The act provides various services to the victims of sexual offences, including free post-exposure prophylaxis 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, which records the details of those convicted of sexual offences against children or people who are mentally disabled.
Contents
List of offences
The following offences are prohibited by the act.
Constitutional challenges
In May 2012 the Western Cape High Court ruled that many of the sections of the act were not enforceable because they did not prescribe specific sentences for the crimes, and this violated the principle of legality ("nulla poena sine lege"). In July this 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 passed an amendment to close the potential loophole.
In an October 2013 judgment the Constitutional Court 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 where the age difference is less than two years, is no longer a crime.