Chairperson and colleagues, Deputy Minister, as the hon Tau said, my life has been made easy by the Deputy Minister, because he outlined the purpose of the Bill, its objectives, all its clauses and what it aims to achieve. When one thinks that our children, sisters, mothers and even men are being sexually molested by the heartless, unsympathetic criminals that rapists are, then this Bill is like sweet music to our ears. I want to touch on a few issues, with your permission, Chairperson.
It might sound very strange, colleagues, but it is true that there are people who are forced to rape other people. The question is: Who must be held responsible for that action? This Bill provides for a person who is compelled to rape someone to be turned into a state witness. However, there must be proof that one had been compelled to do so.
One other scenario is that there are people who are compelled to masturbate. From now onwards, if someone forces you or compels you to masturbate, it is an offence and this person will be sentenced and dealt with severely.
One clause that had caused some discomfort for the committee is the clause that deals with flashing. Because of some religious or cultural practices, the committee effected some changes to accommodate this. As a committee at this Parliament, we thought that we should avoid passing legislation that would easily be defied by our own people, hence those amendments.
Child pornography and those things were touched on and well-explained by the Deputy Minister - I'm not going to touch on them again. One other clause that was amended relates to bestiality. We fully agree with the contents in this clause, except where it outlaws masturbating an animal. That's where the committee made some changes, because of the submissions that were made by some farmers, especially those who are involved with animal breeding. We made some changes there to accommodate them because they said one masturbates an animal to check if it can deliver. I trust you understand what I mean when I say "it can deliver", because I don't want to be explicit.
The sexual grooming aspect was well-explained by the Deputy Minister. The committee had some concerns around what people might term "interfering with some practices". We even gave the examples of some senior people in the country, but I'm not going into those details now. The committee effected some changes to accommodate those concerns, but those were not major changes. They were just made to make it clear to people who might not understand the exact message the committee wanted to convey to the public. I'm glad to say that the committee went further - went the extra mile - by consulting even our political heads in this regard, and we seem to be speaking the same language. This Bill provides that all rapists will be compelled to undergo HIV tests, as the Deputy Minister put it, "bethanda bengathandi" [whether they like it or not]. We want to make sure that should our daughters, our sisters and our mothers be subjected to this unsympathetic and satanic act, they are able to get treatment as quickly as they can.
To all of you rapists, please note that from now onwards, your names will be registered, and we are going to publish you. Shame on you!
We want to appeal to all our judicial officers to show no mercy when dealing with these kinds of offences. Let me leave those issues to my colleagues on the committee.
Before my time is up, I want to thank the officials in these departments. With your permission, Chairperson, I want to name them: Mr Du Preez, who I call Hank, Ms Clark and Dr Louw. These are the officials who were patient and prepared to take the committee through all the clauses. At times they had to revisit the same clauses over and over again, but they were willing and dedicated in their dealings with us. These are the people you can call true South Africans - people who are ready to serve this country with passion. Deputy Minister, if I had my way, I would promote those three, because they deserve it.
Colleagues, hon members, I thank you because of what you have done for this committee, particularly during the past three months of this session. I'll express my gratitude fully on Thursday. Because of time constraints today, I won't be able to do it, but you deserve to be thanked. I appeal to this House to vote for this Bill, with those minor amendments. Thank you.