Bill changes boost GBV fight

With a victim-centred focus on combatting gender-based violence (GBV), President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law legislation aimed at making it more difficult for perpetrators to escape justice.

The president approved the amendment of three Bills related to GBV, and said the enacted legislation is a deliverable from the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and

Femicide, which was called for at the November 2018 Presidential Summit against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF).

The changes seek to expand the scope of the National Register for Sex Offenders, to include the particulars of all sex offenders, not only offenders against children and the mentally disabled.

‘It will also expand the list of persons who are to be protected, to include other vulnerable people, including those with physical, mental or intellectual disabilities, and people over the age of 60 who, for example, receive community-based care and support services,’ said the presidency.

Amendments will also increase the periods for which a sex offender’s particulars must remain on the NRSO before they can be removed from the register.

‘The prime goal is to improve the country’s prevention of sex crimes, particularly of paedophilia.

It also proposes to expand the ambit of the crime of incest, and introduces a new offence of sexual intimidation,’ said the presidency.

Further amendments aim to reduce secondary victimisation of vulnerable persons in court proceedings.

The new law expands the circumstances in which a complainant can give evidence through an intermediary, and provides for evidence to be given through audio-visual links in proceedings other than criminal proceedings.

This legislation also tightens bail and minimum sentencing provisions in the context of GBV.

The Domestic Violence Act is also amended, to address ‘practical challenges, gaps and anomalies which have manifested since the Act came into operation in December 1999’.

‘In particular, the amended legislation includes new definitions, such as ‘controlling behaviour’ and ‘coercive behaviour’, and expands existing definitions, such as ‘domestic violence’, to include spiritual abuse, elder abuse, and/or exposing/subjecting children to certain behaviours, among others,’ said the presidency.

Also introduced in the amendments is online applications for protection orders against acts of domestic violence, and imposes obligations on functionaries in the departments of health and social development to provide certain services to victims of domestic violence.