I read that “A new law has been passed that anyone under the age of 16 cannot kiss, embrace or even touch in public. If you are caught doing these things and you are under 16 you can be arrested and prosecuted.” This story was confirmed by another site.
Being who I am I could not just accept the correctness of these reports without confirming the truth myself. So, I had a look at the “Sexual Offences Act”.
This is a very graphic piece of legislation which I do not find fitting to discuss in detail on this forum. I can only suspect that the writers referred to section 9(4) read with the definition (section 1) of an “indecent act”. I could however, with no stretch of the imagination, come to the conclusion that the kissing of a girl younger than 16 years has been rendered illegal. It might however be that there is some misunderstanding. On the one hand, I could only get hold of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill and I am not sure that it is the legislation that had been approved in parliament. On the other hand the British has also passed their Sexual Offences Act and it might be that the two are being mixed up by these writers.
Maybe someone can clarify this situation as it is extremely important. To be accused of a sexual offence and to have such a conviction against your name can have extremely harsh ramification for any person.
J.C.Grobler.
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December 29th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
The article on this topic that was posted on Ibhubezi was picked up on page 1 of the Independent on December 22, 2007. This story was intended as a tongue-in-cheek look at the teenager’s response to a portion of the new act. The link to the source of the story was posted within the article.
December 29th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
In my earlier comment I forgot to mention that this same story was also published on page 1 of the Cape Argus on 28 December 2007 and also on page 3 of the Pretoria News of 18 December 2007.
December 30th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Hi J.C - Thanks for the link. There is a strong chance that this is a small storm in a big teacup but I have read numerous reports by media organisations about this issue and hence blogged it on SA Rocks.
Have a look Here.