PRETORIA, South Africa (CU)_South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed a new law that would permit the prosecution of those accused of having committed several crimes which are not listed in section 18 of the Criminal Procedure Act, irrespective of when the crime was committed.
Previously, perpetrators of offences that are not listed in this section could not be prosecuted after 20 years from the time the alleged crime occurred. However, this time limit was removed by the Prescription in Civil and Criminal Matters (Sexual Offences) Amendment Bill, which arose from a Constitutional Court judgment issued in June 2018, that declared section 18 of the Criminal Procedure Act to be inconsistent with the constitution.
This section lists several crimes, including rape, compelled rape, murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and much more, which are excluded from the 20-year prescription.
This means, if an individual was sexually assaulted by someone but not was raped, the suspect cannot be charged after 20 years since the crime was committed. However, this has been changed by the recent Bill, deputy minister of justice, John Jeffery, explained.
“If you murder somebody, you will always run the risk of being charged. However, if you assault somebody, 20 years after you assaulted them, you could not be charged. Not anymore,” he said.
This inconsistency in the law was brought to light by the eight victims of child molestation‚ allegedly perpetrated by late billionaire Sidney Frankel. They claimed that the former stockbroker had sexually assaulted them in the 1970s and 1980s‚ when they were aged between 7 and 15.
Although these victims attempted to lay criminal charges against him in 2015, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in Gauteng declined to prosecute because of the time limit.
Subsequently, in 2018, the eight victims successfully had section 18 of the Criminal Procedure Act declared unconstitutional by the high court, with judge Claire Hartford ruling that victims of sexual and indecent assault should be allowed to lay charges at any time after they were abused.
