OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 5.00pm
THE South African Law Commission may soon set in motion a possible amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act to permit HIV-testing of rape suspects. Current interpretations of the law and the constitution protect a rape suspect from having to undergo HIV-testing.
The Sunday Independent reports that, if the proposal is passed when it goes before the commission’s executive on August 12, it will form the foundation of new legislation to make testing a rape suspect for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases compulsory, if the rape survivor wants it.
Judge Edwin Cameron, an acting constitutional court judge and the project leader on HIV/Aids at the law commission, said the provision has been drafted ”to ensure the utmost simplicity and speed of implementation”.
The document, which the Sunday Independent quotes Cameron as describing as ”a constitutional novelty”, proposes a procedure similar to the launching of a bail application: that a magistrate be available 24 hours a day to hear an application for having the suspect tested, that the rape victim should not have to confront the suspect, and that oral testimony or a written affidavit, by her or on her behalf, stating under oath that the suspect committed the offence and that there was a risk of transmission, should warrant the test.
Rape victims must currently obtain the necessary anti-HIV drugs — usually a combination of AZT, 3TC and Crixivan – independently and at their own expense because the government does not provide ”post-exposure prophylaxis” (PEP) for rape victims.