The Department of Basic Education (DBE) will be introducing a policy that will be effective as of January 2022.
This policy compels schools to report to the police when a pupil who is under the age of 16 years falls pregnant from an older man.
Civil and criminal proceedings are to follow as well.
“We have hundreds of statutory cases which have not been reported to the police. In fact the police have said we have seen the statistics that we've published but we don't have a record of these types of cases,” said DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga.
The Education Department is happy about the gazetting of this policy as it has come at a right time in that they are going to be able to start dealing.
The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) said in a statement:
The Commission has repeatedly called for the law to be applied to curb the growing scourge of statutory rape in South Africa, which has seen thousands of underage girls, some as young as 10 years, drop out of school due to early pregnancy.
The CGE said it is confident that the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will play a vital role in ensuring that every case of statutory rape is thoroughly investigated and successfully prosecuted.
Community members and families are also urged to report any incidents of abuse to the nearest police station
