South Africa plans to introduce a new law that will broaden the legal definition of rape in a bid to clamp down on widespread sexual offences, the justice ministry said on Wednesday.
South Africa has one of the world’s highest rates of violent crime, including rape. According to the latest police data, more than 55 000 cases of rape were reported in 2004.
These statistics are especially disturbing given that one in nine South Africans is infected by HIV/Aids, analysts say.
Justice officials say sex crimes are even more prevalent and some of the most heinous acts often go unpunished or are dealt lighter sentences as they are not covered under existing laws.
”A reason that a lot of people subjected to sexual violence actually fall through the cracks is that current legislation doesn’t cover them,” said Zolile Nqayi, a justice ministry spokesperson.
The latest draft of the Sexual Offences Bill is being considered by Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice, one of the first steps in making it into law.
In its current form, it expands the definition of rape to include sodomy and penetration by objects other than a penis.
The Bill also makes provision for coercion to rape — making it easier, for instance, to dish out heavier sentences to gang leaders who order their followers to rape.
South Africa was shocked in 2003 when a local Aids activist was gang-raped and then killed by her attackers after she revealed that she was HIV-positive.
Nqayi said the new law would inflate already alarming rape statistics but would help authorities by giving them a clearer picture of the true extent of sexual offences in South Africa.
”I think it [the statistics] will be closer to reality. It will help us with a strategy to deal with the problem,” he said. — Reuters