MPS approve sex offences bill changes

Proposal to plug gaps in act

AN EMERGENCY amendment bill aimed at plugging gaps in the Sexual Offences Act passed the third of four legislative hurdles when MPs from the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) unanimously adopted the proposed law.

The NCOP’s security and constitutional affairs committee approved the amendment bill – introduced by the justice and constitutional development portfolio committee and passed by the National Assembly last week – without further changes after a briefing on its contents by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

All that remains is for the bill to be passed in the NCOP itself, before the National Assembly can forward it to President Jacob Zuma for promulgation.

The bill – officially the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act Amendment Bill – was introduced last week after the Western Cape High Court exposed flaws in the original act in a May 11 judgment which pointed out that MPs had failed to specify penalties for 29 offences listed in the act.

A full bench of the High Court ruled that, in the absence of specified penalties, the affected offences did not constitute crimes.

This raised fears that sexual offenders prosecuted in the Western Cape since the act came into force in December 2009 could successfully challenge their convictions on the strength of the high court ruling.

Since an act of Parliament cannot be implemented retroactively, even the new bill will not prevent court challenges in cases concluded since the original act came into force, and before the new bill becomes law.

This has prompted the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to appeal the Cape court’s judgment before the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

The appeal court has set aside June 12 and 13 to hear the matter.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has begun drafting a new bill which will prescribe sentences for each of the 29 affected offences.

They include: compelled rape; sexual assault; compelled self-sexual assault; flashing; incest; bestiality; sexual acts with a corpse; displaying child pornography; engaging sexual services of persons older than 18 years; and some forms of statutory rape.

According to the Justice Department’s chief of legislative drafting, Lawrence Basset, a reworked bill will be ready for Parliament’s attention only next year. The NPA has advised the police in the Western Cape not to make any arrests in cases involving the affected offences.

They have been instructed to open case dockets and forward these to the relevant senior prosecutors, “who will peruse the dockets to see if any other substantial charges can be utilised to substitute the offences affected”.

In respect of cases already before the courts, the NPA will apply for them to be postponed for at least two months, pending the court’s ruling. FALLING in love with the girl next door was the beginning of a fairytale romance that Jonathan Moeti hopes to affirm when he marries his childhood sweetheart, Silindile Bhengu.

The couple is the first of five finalists in the Daily News Win a Wedding Competition.

They entered the competition after Bhengu heard about it on the radio.

After a three-year engagement, Bhengu said she had been planning their wedding for later this year, but knew that it would not be their dream wedding due to financial constraints.

“When I heard about the competition and everything we could win, I knew our wedding would be so special,” she said. “I decided to enter immediately and have been dreaming about the big day since.”

The pair met as children in 1990, when their families moved into neighbouring homes in KwaDabeka, and Moeti made no secret of his interest in Bhengu.

“While we were in primary school, he told his friends that he liked me and that he would marry me some day,” Bhengu said.

Seventeen years later, Moeti – now an engineer – secretly measured his sleeping girlfriend’s ring finger for the engagement ring that he would later buy and hide in her home.

Bhengu said her then boy- friend of four years had compiled a series of clues that sent her on a treasure hunt for the ring.

“When I found the ring, he asked me to marry him, but I was so surprised,” she said. “I didn’t expect it.”

Since their engagement, Moeti and Bhengu’s careers have forced them into a long-distance relationship.

However, the pair hopes that the money they will save if they win the competition can be used to start their life as a married couple. The competition, which boasts over R120 000 worth of prizes, continues for the next three weeks, with entry forms appearing in the Daily News on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

To enter, couples must submit the original entry form, a picture of themselves and two Daily News mastheads.

One finalist will be chosen each week before the five finalists are interviewed and a winner is selected.