The objects of this Act are to afford complainants of sexual offences the maximum and least traumatising protection that the law can provide, to introduce measures which seek to enable the relevant organs of state to give full effect to the provisions of this Act and to combat and, ultimately, eradicate the relatively high incidence of sexual offences committed in the Republic by:
| (a) | Enacting all matters relating to sexual offences in a single statute; |
| (b) | criminalising all forms of sexual abuse or exploitation; |
| (c) | repealing certain common law sexual offences and replacing them with new and, in some instances, expanded or extended statutory sexual offences, irrespective of gender; |
| (d) | protecting complainants of sexual offences and their families from secondary victimisation and trauma by establishing a co-operative response between all government departments involved in implementing an effective, responsive and sensitive criminal justice system relating to sexual offences; |
| (e) | promoting the spirit of batho pele ('the people first') in respect of service delivery in the criminal justice system dealing with sexual offences by— |
| (i) | ensuring more effective and efficient investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of sexual offences by clearly defining existing offences, and creating new offences; |
| (ii) | giving proper recognition to the needs of victims of sexual offences through timeous, effective and non-discriminatory investigation and prosecution; |
| (iii) | facilitating a uniform and co-ordinated approach by relevant Government departments in dealing with sexual offences; |
| (iv) | entrenching accountability of government officials; and |
| (v) | minimising disparities in the provision of services to victims of sexual offences; |
| (f) | providing certain services to victims of sexual offences, including affording victims of sexual offences the right to receive Post Exposure Prophylaxis in certain circumstances; and |
| (g) | establishing a National Register for Sex Offenders in order to establish a record of persons who are or have been convicted of any ‘sexual offences’, as defined in section 40, so as to prohibit such persons from being employed in a manner that places them in a position to work with or have authority or supervision over or care of persons who are vulnerable. |
[Section 2(g) substituted by section 2 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2021 (Act No. 13 of 2021), GG45823, dated 28 January 2022 - effective 31 July 2022 as per Proclamation Notice R.79, GG47105, dated 29 July 2022]
