Action Society is dismayed but not surprised by a recent study conducted by the National Association of School Governing Bodies (Nasgb) which revealed that 16 097 teachers in South Africa have a criminal background, including rape, murder, assault, theft, robbery, fraud, drug-related crimes, housebreaking and serious road infringements.
“In South Africa, the Register for Sexual Offenders is not available to the public. Parents have no way to check up on the people they trust their children with. Action Society demands that the Sexual offenders list be available to the public. Privacy laws shouldn’t protect perpetrators of sexual crimes,” said Action Society’s Juanita du Preez.
Action Society recently launched a petition to demand that the Register for Sexual Offenders is made public. The petition can be viewed here: https://actionsociety.co.za/nrso/.
“This study should serve as a wake-up call to all parents in South Africa. We have sexual offenders and rapists teaching our children, and parents have no way to be made aware of it. We trust these people not only to educate our children but to keep them safe, and now, even these institutions pose a risk to their safety and wellbeing. It may be uncomfortable, but parents must ensure that they talk to their children about different forms of sexual abuse and ensure that their children are able to identify and flee such situations if possible, and always report inappropriate behaviour,” said Du Preez.
There seem to be no safe places left for children in South Africa. Most recently, we were mandated to oversee the case where a creche transport driver sexually molested a young girl, whilst elsewhere, a teenager was raped by a pastor. In two of our biggest cases, toddlers were abducted from parks while playing, only to be found brutally murdered a day later.
“Publishing the register for sexual offenders will be a big step in the right direction. Predators don’t deserve privacy.”
