SISTERS Working in Film and Television (S.W.I.F.T) has welcomed the recent signing into law of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (Sexual Offences & Related Matters) and other legislation aimed at fighting gender-based violence.
In a statement released by the non-profit organisation on Friday, chairperson Zanele Mthembu said that the move demonstrated President Cyril Ramaphosa’s commitment to addressing the scourge of sexual offences in the country.
S.W.I.F.T is an organisation in the audio-visual industry that said it has been at the forefront of providing support to women experiencing sexual harassment in their workplace through one of its major sexual harassment programmes including the Safety Contact Officer (SCO) programme and its Public Service Announcement #ItsNotOkay campaign.
They further welcomed that more accountability would now be placed on the SA Police Service and the criminal justice system to provide adequate punitive measures for perpetrators and convicted offenders.
Key to the interventions is the expansion of the scope of the National Offenders Register.
“This bodes well for the audio-visual industry, that is not always officially regarded as a work-place environment, fraught with innuendos of sexual intimidation,” said the head of the advocacy programme Lindi Ndebele-Koka.
The new legislation now also recognises sexual intimidation as an official offence, which it had not done before.
The organisation therefore encouraged women in the industry to utilise these instruments of legal protection.
Ramaphosa signed three new pieces of legislation into law on January 31, 2022. These laws are aimed at strengthening the fight against gender-based violence, through changing the perspective in the case of how government departments, courts and law enforcement handles cases of violent crime in the country, with particular reference to violence directed at women and the vulnerable.
The other laws include the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Act and the Domestic Violence Amendment Act.
THE MERCURY