It is 10 years since parliament set up the National Register for Sex Offenders, eight years since it started operating, and it's still virtually useless.
That's one of the reasons children remain at the mercy of people like the ex-teacher dubbed "Apeman", sentenced to 32 life terms for 32 child rapes this week and charged with hundreds of other sexual offences against children.
As well as being the country where 30% of girls can expect to be raped - one of scores of statistics on sex crimes that shame South Africa - we have the unfortunate reputation of being something of a haven for offenders.
Last week, an alleged British paedophile won a court's permission to exercise among frolicking children at an open-air gym in Sea Point. John Smyth, accused of inflicting savage beatings on teenage boys, has spent years living in a family-friendly Cape Town suburb.
Ironically, as former director of the Justice Alliance of South Africa, Smyth supported the campaign for the sex offenders register to be made public. Fat chance of that: in a textbook example of criminals having more rights than everyone else, it remains an offence to disclose or publish information in the register.
Smyth, at least, may end up on the register in the UK if charges and convictions follow the police inquiry launched in response to a TV documentary about his activities at Christian holiday camps for teenage boys.
While the British register is accessible at police stations, the US takes things a step further. Its National Sex Offender Public Website has a search tool that allows anyone to locate sex offenders.
The 12 staff who run South Africa's register rely on court clerks to submit details of convictions, a system designed to fail. And if one of the few organisations allowed to make requests for information on the register submits the requisite form, it takes months to get an answer.
We can and must do so much better.
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