The Democratic Alliance (DA) has tabled a private member’s Bill seeking to expunge from the record crimes committed during the apartheid era that would not be crimes today.
The inspiration for the measure came to him from two constituents, DA correctional services spokesperson James Selfe said in a statement on Thursday.
”One wanted a visa to visit his son who had emigrated. This person had been convicted in 1975 under the Immorality Act for having a sexual relationship with a woman of another race, and who, as a result, had been given a suspended prison sentence.
”The other was a man who had applied for a job for which a clean criminal-conviction record was a prerequisite, but had a criminal conviction for breaking the curfew regulations imposed by the former Transkei.”
Selfe said the proposed Bill seeks to create a simple mechanism whereby crimes committed under apartheid, ”which are not crimes in the democratic society in which we live today”, can be administratively expunged from the record.
”We are not talking here about amnesty or immunity from prosecution for crimes that have not been dealt with by the courts … We are talking about people who have criminal records for crimes that would not be crimes today,” he said. — Sapa