Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
criminal law amendment actlatest news & developments
Courts need to take into account Battered Woman Syndrome and other psychological effects of ongoing intimate partner violence.
ABUSE

Him or me: How abused women are criminalised

A constitutional challenge to the Mandatory Minimum Sentences Regime and the Criminal Law Amendment Act aims to show that these Acts fail to consider the effects of prolonged…

  • Lee-Anne Gaertner
6 min read
The acquittal of the accused in 2021 by acting Judge Tembeka Ngcukaitobi raised considerable debate about the subjective test on consent in terms of which an accused can plead that he held the genuine, if mistaken, belief that he was not acting against the will of the victim. (Photo credit should read HERMAN VERWEY/AFP via Getty Images)
ANELISA NGCAKANI

Coko vs S ruling: The case against a subjective test on consent in rape trials

Acting judge Tembeka Ngcukaitobi’s acquittal of a rape suspect has raised controversy, but legal experts say the fault lay with legislators and not the court

  • Emsie Ferreira
9 min read
Tragedy: Flowers mark the place where Anene Booysen was raped and murdered in Bredasdorp in 2013. (David Harrison)
BILL OF RIGHTS

Death penalty won’t stop sexual violence

It will take the end of patriarchy and an efficient justice system to jail more offenders

  • Gushwell Brooks
5 min read