16 Days of Activism: Siv Ngesi joins calls for sex offenders list to be made public
Comedian and TV host Siv Ngesi has called for the national register for sex offenders to be made public, saying people should know who the offenders are.
This week the country kicked off the first week of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said all sectors of society should play their part in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV).
Taking to Twitter, Siv suggested that making the sex offenders list available could help fight the scourge of GBV and femicide.
He added by making the list available, sex offenders would be named and shamed.
“If someone is a sex offender, we must all know,” he said. “The sex offenders list must be available to the public and updated by the police.”
If someone is a sex offender , we must all know! Sex offender list must be available to the public and updated by the police
— Siv Ngesi (@iamSivN) November 27, 2020
Siv said men need to change and that their “silence is violence”.
Nah , “we” men won’t change ....😢
— Siv Ngesi (@iamSivN) November 28, 2020
— Siv Ngesi (@iamSivN) November 30, 2020
He also agreed with One SA leader Mmusi Maimane that the sexual offences register should be made accessible online and every police station should have a dedicated computer where people could check if they don’t have internet.
— Siv Ngesi (@iamSivN) November 27, 2020
Last week, police minister Bheki Cele said 94 rapists were sentenced to life imprisonment between July and September.
According to Cele, more than 8,000 women reported rapes during this period and many of these occurred in public places like parks, beaches and open fields.
He said out of the 8,000, the majority were either raped in their homes or at the homes of their partners.
“Since the relaunch of the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, we managed to have 5,534 people sentenced to life imprisonment. Between July and September, 94 people were sentenced to life imprisonment,” said Cele.