Parliament told that mandatory reporting ‘leaves adolescent girls vulnerable’
Experts are warning parliament that South Africa’s mandatory reporting laws, meant to protect children, may be unintentionally harming the girls they seek to defend.
Laws to curb sexual violence backfiring
According to Rhodes University psychology professor Catriona Ida Macleod, the country’s efforts to curb sexual violence against minors may be backfiring, with current laws inadvertently punishing adolescent girls instead of protecting them.
She said while the intention behind mandatory reporting of statutory rape was noble, poor implementation and misinterpretation of the law had damaging consequences.
“Poorly implemented reporting policies risk punishing girls who experience statutory rape rather than the perpetrators,” Macleod said.
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She was speaking on behalf of the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (CSSR) Unit and the Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition at the parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.
Misinterpretation of underage sexual activity
Macleod explained that while the Sexual Offences Act allows consensual sexual activity between adolescents aged 13 to 15 within a two-year age gap, many teachers and health workers wrongly interpret all underage sexual activity as a criminal offence.
“A 15-year-old girl in a consensual relationship with a 17-year-old boyfriend could be falsely reported as a rape victim,” she noted, pointing out that the result was that young people are avoiding essential health services out of fear of being reported to authorities.
“Adolescents already face stigma and judgment from healthcare providers. The threat of police involvement adds another layer of fear, leading to late pregnancy reporting, unsafe abortions and higher rates of HIV infection.”
‘Victims forced into silence’
Macleod also drew attention to the socioeconomic factors behind teenage relationships, saying that in many poor communities, transactional sex was a survival strategy.
“Reporting rape may mean cutting off financial support to a family. This grim reality often forces young survivors into silence,” she said.
Instead of criminalising girls, Macleod called for reforms focusing on men who exploit minors, stronger community-based prevention, and programmes challenging toxic masculinity.
Her recommendations include ensuring that all government policies align with the Sexual Offences Act, training teachers and health workers to apply the law correctly, and embedding sexual rights education in schools.
‘National crisis of child sexual violence’
Dr Janine Hicks, senior lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) School of Law, urged committee members to confront what she described as a “national crisis of child sexual violence” and to hold the state accountable for systemic failures that continue to expose children, particularly girls, to abuse, exploitation and teenage pregnancy.
Her submission, titled ‘Child Sexual Violence and Teenage Pregnancy: Measures for State Accountability and Justice’, laid bare deep cracks in South Africa’s protection systems and called for urgent legislative and policy reform.
Citing recent data from Statistics South Africa, Hicks noted that sexual assaults against children under 17 occur at nearly double the national rate, 20 per 100 000 children compared to 10 per 100 000 in the general population.
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She said half of these assaults were committed by someone known to the victim.
“By framing incidents of pregnancy in girls under 16 as ‘teenage pregnancy’, we obscure the fact that many of these pregnancies are the result of sexual violence or statutory rape. In such cases, the full might of the criminal law must apply,” Hicks said.
Poor coordination among departments
She warned that poor coordination among departments, including health, education, social development and justice, has led to fragmented responses, unreported cases, and missed opportunities to protect victims and prosecute offenders.
Hicks said many cases only reach the authorities once a pregnancy is detected, and that medical staff and teachers often focus on the child’s pregnancy rather than the sexual offence, with mandatory reporting obligations inconsistently applied or misunderstood.
“This fractured approach leads to offenders going unpunished while child victims receive little to no support. The state’s failure to track, report and monitor these cases reflects a dereliction of its constitutional obligations under Section 28,” she said.
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Hicks also warned against broad reporting obligations that criminalise consensual underage sex between adolescents, arguing that such measures deter young girls from seeking healthcare and could unfairly stigmatise teenage relationships.
She outlined the following weaknesses:
- the absence of departmental directives under the Sexual Offences Act;
- lack of protection for teachers and health workers who report abuse; and
- insufficient training for frontline officials, including police officers, social workers and traditional leaders.
Equally troubling, she said, was the rise in sexual abuse perpetrated by teachers themselves, a problem that she said requires “immediate intervention and accountability”.
She called on the committee to confront harmful cultural practices such as ukuthwala and the payment of “damages” for impregnating young girls, customs she said perpetuated the abuse of minors under the guise of tradition.
The committee is expected to issue a report with recommendations to the departments of health, basic education, justice and social development.
