The Criminal Law (Sexual offences and related Matters) Amendment Act (No 32 of 2007) – usually referred to as the Sexual offences Act – has changed the definition of rape and various other offences linked to sexual violence.

The objects of the Act are to give victims of sexual offences the maximum and least traumatising protection that the law can provide and to introduce measures which will allow the state to give full effect to the provisions of this Act. The Act aims to do this by:

• Bringing together all matters and/or offences relating to sexual offences in a single Act
• Making all forms of sexual abuse or exploitation a criminal offence
• Replacing some common law sexual offences such as incest, with new offences that will apply to both men and women
• Protecting complainants of sexual offences and their families from secondary victimisation
• Promoting the spirit of batho pele (‘the people first’) in respect of service delivery in the criminal justice system dealing with sexual offences
• Providing certain services to victims of sexual offences, including affording victims of sexual offences the right to receive Post Exposure Prophylaxis in certain circumstances
• Establishing a National Register for Sex Offenders