Parliament’s justice committee has acted swiftly – and unanimously – to adopt an urgent amendment to the Sexual Offences Act after a controversial High Court judgment rendered several sexual offences unpunishable in the Western Cape.
MPs on Tuesday took just one hour to reach consensus on the proposed amendment bill, which will now be tabled for a vote, without debate, in the National Assembly on Thursday.
Due to the urgency of the matter, political parties have agreed to suspend a parliamentary rule requiring at least three days to pass between a bill’s adoption by committee and its passage through the assembly.
The amendment aims to plug legislative holes exposed by the Western Cape High Court on May 11 when it upheld an earlier judgment of the Riversdale Regional Court by dismissing sexual assault charges against the accused, Arnold Prins, on the grounds that MPs had failed to specify penalties for 29 offences contained in the act.
Once signed into law, the amendment bill would remove the legal uncertainty that surrounds the Sexual Offences Act.
However, the constitution prohibits any law from operating retroactively.
This leaves sexual offences cases that have been prosecuted since the original act came into force in December 2009 – and those still pending – vulnerable to legal challenge because lower courts in the Western Cape remain bound by the High Court ruling.
Political Bureau