In this post, Dhumbura uses Ian Hoggins’ sexual offense case as a starting point to argue that, in South Africa, despite strong laws such as the Sexual Offenses Act, failures in the National Register for Sex Offenders continue to leave children vulnerable, exposing serious institutional weaknesses that demand urgent reform.

Lee-Anne Germanos Manuel discusses the significance of The Embrace Project v Minister of Justice and Correctional Service, in which the applicants successfully challenged the constitutionality of certain provisions relating to consent-based sexual offences in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Act 32 of 2007 in the High Court of South Africa. The constitutional challenge focused on the element of criminal intent and its effect on consent and now awaits confirmation by the Constitutional Court.