As sexual crime continues to take an unacceptably high toll in the Northern Cape, the Democratic Alliance (DA) requested a joint briefing with relevant stakeholders to discuss flaws in the Form 22 reporting ecosystem.
In accordance with the Children’s Act, Form 22 is meant to report suspected statutory rape to the relevant authorities. Recent developments in Vioolsdrift, where a chance comment from a child to her school principal exposed horrifying sexual crimes against children in the community, emphasises the importance of this framework in catching and convicting criminals. In this case, the culprit has been convicted, and we appreciate the diligence of those involved to bring her to justice.
But this is not the outcome achieved in all cases. The Northern Cape Department of Social Development dealt with 413 cases of sexual abuse of victims younger than 18 in the past five years and submitted 428 Form 22s to the South African Police Services (SAPS) in this time. This includes 67 cases reported in the 2025/26 year alone. Yet it seems that only 15 cases are currently before the Children’s Court for inquiry, which is simply not sufficient to secure convictions and to remove rapists from society.
We therefore asked that stakeholders from the health, social development, education, and crime sectors come together to find a sustainable, integrated solution to the management of child rape. We cannot have systems existing on paper that do not offer practical justice to victims and that fail to catch or convict predators.
The DA will continue to monitor the situation and to work with stakeholders to secure justice for child rape victims.