Voorsitter, agb Adjunkminister en kollegas, vir die afgelope vier jaar word daar al hard gewerk aan hierdie wetgewing en as ons kyk na die seksuele geweld teen vroue en veral teen kinders is dit hoog tyd dat ons baie streng wetgewing kry en die DA ondersteun met graagte hierdie wetgewing. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Mr J W LE ROUX: Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister and colleagues, for the past four years there has been a lot of hard work on this legislation, and if we look at sexual violence against women and particularly against children, it is high time that we have stringent legislation and the DA gladly supports this legislation.]
I do not want to repeat what our Deputy Minister said, but I think that I would just like to say that the object of the Bill is to introduce measures which seek to enable the relevant organs of state to combat and eradicate the high levels of sexual offences committed in South Africa. The Bill aims to review and amend all aspects of the law relating to sexual offences in a single statute.
Voorsitter, wat egter baie onrusbarend was, is dat sommige ANC-lede van die komitee, klousule 28, wat handel oor verpligte HIV-toetsing na verkragting, wou verander. [Chairperson, what is, however, extremely worrying, is that there are some ANC members of the committee who wanted to change clause 28, which deals with compulsory HIV testing after rape.]
The argument was that we will infringe on the rights of the alleged perpetrators if the court forces immediate HIV testing. A legal adviser for the chairperson even suggested that it would be unconstitutional to enforce immediate testing. These members of the committee disregarded the rights of the rape victims to timeously know the HIV status of the alleged perpetrators.
The rights of a victim in a case of rape are fundamental and must be protected. How else can a victim make informed choices as far as medication is concerned? Fortunately, after intensive debate, this clause was not amended. There was also major debate on sexual grooming of children, clauses 18 and 22, and on flashing. The drafters were forced to amend clause 56 in order to satisfy members that cultural rights would be protected. Only future interpretations by judges will test these clauses which relate to cultural practices. I would like to quote the clause and I would be very interested to know what our Deputy Minister thinks of this:
A person may not be convicted of an offence in terms of section 9 clause 22 ...
... or 18(1)(c) ...
... if that person commits such an act in compliance with, and in the interest of, a legitimate cultural practice.
I think only time will tell whether these clauses will really stand the test of time.
It is fair to say that after many years of debating and drafting we will have an Act that can and will protect the victims of sexual abuse. What we need now is to vigorously enforce this Act. I thank you.