South Africa: Warning against making register for sex offenders public

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has warned against calls to make public the national register for sex offenders.

It is believed that making the register public would curb sexual offences against children, but according to the department, this would fuel mob justice against perpetrators.

Department spokesperson Steve Mahlangu said publicising the register could not be done without violating the right to privacy of an individual, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

“There are also dangers of the register being used unjustifiably to fuel acts of mob justice against perpetrators. This is among a number of issues that make publicising the register a contentious and complicated discussion,”

SOURCE


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17 thoughts on “South Africa: Warning against making register for sex offenders public

  • May 7, 2021

    A civil rights organization wants to “declare child pornography a priority crime and request double life sentences for offenders found guilty of the possession or production of child pornography.”

    Yup… a CIVIL rights organization that wants to get “the national register for sex offenders made available to the public.

    Somebody is misguided.

    Reply
  • May 7, 2021

    Wow a South African politician gets it and the supposedly most powerful nation in the world doesn’t

    Reply
    • May 7, 2021

      I’m wondering what the South African politician is hiding… well beside apartheid, a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.

      Reply
      • May 7, 2021

        LPH, you may be a little behind the power curve on your comment. Your concern was resolved several years ago.

        Reply
  • May 7, 2021

    Wow! The freest country in the world (so we claim) couldn’t careless about the Bill of Rights, but South Africans at least mention theirs.
    The mind is boggled.

    Reply
    • May 7, 2021

      I’m not sure “we” is in your statement that USA is “The freest country in the world (so we claim)…”, but I’m not part of that “we”.

      Reply
    • May 7, 2021

      Bob

      I sent that in yesterday but as usual, they wouldn’t post it.

      Reply
    • May 8, 2021

      I spent a large amount of time reading the comments after the story. Of course there is the usual half them comments but there is also alot of people questioning the tactics of the police in these stings and many calling them illegal for entrapment among the fact there is no actual victim and the day and age where everyone lies on the internet and people can identify as who or whatever they want to be legally.

      Reply
      • May 8, 2021

        Robert

        AND, the fact there is NO victim. Even if you were traveling to meet a minor, no Real minor ever existed in the sting. It is an adult “Pretending” to me a minor.

        When I went through the police academy, the instructor discussed case law. One subject that stands out was how many Drug stings got tossed because the cops had flour or something similiar pretending to be cocaine. A good lawyer always got it thrown out as the product being sold was flour and no REAL drugs would have actually been purchased.

        So tell me how a fake sex sting is any different?

        Reply
        • May 8, 2021

          I agree, but the biggest problem is 1, finding a lawyer that will actually do the job to protect the innocent. I know that statement can be applied to both sides. But I’m sure majority of the people in these stings are in tough situations one way or another. I know in mine I was in the Craig list personal intimate encounter for adults only while searching for older women and found a woman that was a single mom and nice although she was persistent and pressured me to talk more… and second is by taking it to trial with a jury is basically a death sentence since there is 99% no way we can get a fair trial especially with a crappy public defender in which most get. So the cards are stacked against us in almost every way. Yea your right about the pretending part. The officer pretended to be a single 34 year old mom and I pretended to be a single dad, although I am a dadish these days cause of this I wasn’t single even though my fiance at the time was extremely emotionally abusive. I hold a 1% chance of hope one day people will wake up and finally question what’s going on and maybe we can have whats left of our lives back.

          Reply
  • May 7, 2021

    Although the U.S does whatever they Damn please, they could take a page out of what South Africa is stating above. This is what I call common sense. Well actually, common sense would be not having a registry at all.

    Reply
  • May 7, 2021

    The registry was never meant to be a public document and making it public has not solved a single problem…only created problems.

    Reply
    • May 7, 2021

      You are 100% correct Capt.

      Reply

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