@billy ---> your comment ''and syphon the wealth of the tax payers when they land up with AIDS or any other STD. '' is uncalled for and disgraceful. Idon't mind my taxmoney to be used for poor people who are HIV positive or pregnant or with STD. Many make mistakes. So do we just condemn with disgust or care and lend a helping hand. Apartheid reduced black society in a difuntional unit to control the masses. They don't deserve your nasty comments.

I believe it is the duty of the youth organisation to teach the teenagers about issues of morality, culture and respect in our society. I believe it is also a challenge to parents to discontinue buying expensive mobile phones to their children without proper monitoring. It is in the culture of Africans to discourage sex before marriage, by so doing curbing teenage pregnancy and HIV-Aids.

It is clear to me from some comments that certain commentators wish only to vent their pent-up anger at anyone they come across, and care not for the rule of law, for principles of human rights, or for the best interests of children, whom they are quite ready to demonize and criminalize, from their own presumed position of moral superiority. This atmosphere leaves no room for calm, evidence-based discussion, so I shall bow out. I would however like to leave with the statement of two points that would repay thoughtful reflection: (1) systems of laws, at their best, exist to establish order and regularity in society, and to eliminate the anarchy and the extremes of personal, mob, and other arbitrary responses to situations, and like it or not are the best basis (though not the only one) for a fair and egalitarian society; and (2) as a general rule, singular and emotive cases, and most especially ones in which the full facts are only partly known, and that through leaks and off-the-record briefings contrary to the confidentiality requirements of the law and the courts in cases involving minors, are not a good basis for evaluating or for making laws. Nor indeed are rage, vindictiveness, and conspiracy theories.

Parties Outraged! This is an outrage! We are the laughing stock of the world. The access to information is in the process of being blocked by the government, which is against any fundamentals of democracy. Laws, set by the law makers are there only to be broken by their children who engage in underage sex and then they want to shout when law abiding citezens want the law to prevail. Is this a way of allowing the youth of today get their own way. They are ill disciplined, ignorant fornicators who are spent on cripling all morals of society. The pregnancies that follow are supported by goverment by giving allowances each child. When the middle age people of this country were younger, we played with wire cars and enjoyed ourselves. Today the youth play with fornication and then shout rape when they are caught out, fall pregnant and syphon the wealth of the tax payers when they land up with AIDS or any other STD. PARENTS, TAKE CHARGE AND DISCIPLINE YOUR OFFSPRING. I must add, if you are old enough to know the differenc.

sex on the school ground film on the phone (distribution) change of story who are these boys are they well connected?? whatever they should be expelled will we ever know the truth??? where are our children safe too many unanswered questions or is our society so perverted

@T. Lockyer --->Your statment'Parents do not have a dictatorial right to determine every aspect of adolescent children's lives.' --> So does the state or the courts have this right? Then on what grounds? Most parents normally allow chilrdren the rights to learn and choose and guide them along the way. Does the state want to brainwash and school our kids and throw out good decent parenting that has good morals and ethics and value systems based on what some dodgy consultants advise goverment to do. We all know very well that voters in society don't have a real say in these matters. Their votes are used as proxy for an elite group o politicians and capitalists in our case do as they please. No the public doesn't have much say as the courts and politicakl arena are out of the masses reach. This is all based on Roman law. Rome was capitalist, cruel, and treated the poor like dirt. Same old story here. Rome still rules today. Conditioning, controlling, and subjucating the masses while the gods rule...Our legal system is to blame for the mess that society's chilren and youth are in and then they grow up. It is a crime against humanity to do this...Legally too!

I think the problems in our crime ridden country are not so much the political arena but moreso the courts and judiciary. These lawyer god's milk society for a quick buck using a system built for them to do so. They manipulate the law and conviently abuse and misuse it. eg. they go to court tell lies that a person owing money to a client can't be found and not reponding to letters and calls. meanwhile they don't call [or call wrong number] and send letters to wrong addresses if they even do send them. So the courts quickly grant whatever based on their word and heresay. In most cases it is much worse when dealing with murder, rape etc etc. So yeah, SA has a major crime situation which can be directly linked to a weak judiciary and courts. Which lawyer or judge has come out stronly in support of a death penalty or jury system. They have become self made god's of whom many are arrogant nasties who treat people like cr@p. They have been given too much power by weak politicians who scramble around to find ways to solve crime and other issues. Also the same legal system, and this is a fact, serves and supports the capitalists and the wealthy who can easily access the courts. The majority of the poor people have no or very little access to these said courts. Hey, they even lock up the court during lunch and send all the public outside the gates to wait in the hot sun or in the rain so that the court god's can eat. The public are treated harshly and cruelly. Shame on the lawyers in SA and the legal system. It's riddled with racism and politics lazy State employees. That's why they they have so much backlog. I can factually call them thugs because they use the terrorist violent prison gangs as backstop and henchmen. 'I'm the boss... or else I'll lock you up'. Ids that thuggery at it's worst or what... and it's legal. Crime is bad in SA because of them... I didn't vote for these laws! I vote for the death penalty and jury and putting the poor man back in the picture, not just harvesting his votes. It's not the first time these lawyer god's let crooks off the hook. If the girl was drugged then that should be the first base to start a case. No but hey looked at the video to see who was laughing. Let one of them get raped and see who laughs then! Shame on yawl..

The state lost the plot when it released the boys to their parents as they were advised to claim the victim consented. these are tomorrow's rapists. is that what we want ?

@"missing docket" Where do laws come from? Well, you live in a representative democracy. You vote in elections, through which MPs are elected to the National Assembly, and members to the National Council of Provinces. These MPs are thereby empowered to make laws on behalf of you and other voters, and they passed this and every other one of the numerous laws that provide the framework of an ordered society (and yes, many of our laws do date from the apartheid period; however, Parliament and government has been working for a decade and a half to replace those that need replacing, while some are not such as to need replacing). I suggest you read the Constitution for all of this. And the public, as well as NGOs and other bodies, all have input into the lawmaking process through public consultations and or the process of discussion by bodies like the SA Law Reform Commission, which actually spent years looking into the reform of the sexual offences legislation, and made recommendations, some of which were adopted and some rejected during the parliamentary process that led to the 2007 Act. It is up to citizens to educate themselves as to the workings of their own country's government, legislature, and laws. It is established best practice around the world to provide sexual health services to adolescents even below the age of consent (16 in SA), because it is recognized that not all children will abstain from sexual behaviour, and it is better to prevent STIs and pregnancy, than to have to deal with the consequences after the fact. Note also that the Children's Act - voted for through the same procedures - provides for a child's right of consent to medical procedures from the age of 12. Parents do not have a dictatorial right to determine every aspect of adolescent children's lives. I will not get into a debate about judicial killing. Suffice it to say that many countries that are implacably opposed to it have far lower levels of violent crime than SA does. Make of this what you will.

@T. Lockyer ---> thanks for the crash sexual offenses course. However, I don't remember voting for these laws. Where did they come from? Did a couple of legal eagles after a few dops decide to be the public representative and in the publice interest decide these matters. The public should have a direct say in lawmaking. They glorified way you have posted this act makes it seem that the law came from a higher order of superior beings from outer space which then was adopted as a perfect sexual offenses act. Yet erring dodgy man was responsible for this law and apartheid. So where's the act that government cannot allow 12 year old's to start receiving contraceptives without their parents knowledge or consent. What can parents charge the state with? Huh! Sweet nothing. Man's laws and legal code is flawed and dodgy. No Death penalty yet so much murder? The kid in CT who took her parents to court for been too strict was allowed by a court to stay elsewhere while the parents picked up the bill. That's dodgy. Now they want to charge the victim who was drugged and raped. I hope the consumer guys sort the lawyers out for overcharging and milking the public for easy money just because the 'law' allows them to do so. Granny once told me that lawyers are big fat liars an shady characters. Lazy good for notghing arrogant state lawyers weaken their case further. ---> What's the difference between a dead dog and a dead lawyer on the road? There are skidmarks in front of the dog...

African Beauty, sexual passion is to be shared among consenting adults, not a lot of horny school children in the school. If you have the morals of an alley cat, please don't think you're in the right, it just shows you lack decency.

I am really disgusted at these kids. They need to be made an example of. I am glad they were charged. It will teach them as well as all those immoral kids at the school. Sickening!

Afrika, Afrika, Afrika need I say more. SA you are stones throw away of becoming the new Somalia, DRC, or Zimbabwe if you have no morals you slide down the slope to misery

In the news today a 15 year old girl gave birth to joined-twins. Is she being charged with statutory rape too?

i think there is more to this if we can nationilise the mines kids will read more about minerals than pornography and our education will give rise to the economy.please give nationilisationspace in your heart

I suggest everyone go and read the law. It's section 15 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act (No. 32 of 2007). This makes it quite clear that the offence of statutory rape applies BOTH to consensual sex between adults and those under 16 AND to consensual sex between people under 16; however, the law is also clear that where both parties are underage, prosecution is not automatic (so there is no danger of thousands of retrospective prosecutions, or of police suddenly chasing sexually active teenagers), but is at the sole and non-delegable discretion of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, who presumably has to consider whether a charge is in the interest of justice, the best interest of the underage parties, and so on. Also, in terms of the Act, if the NDPP does decide to charge one party in consensual behaviour between underage people, ALL parties have to be charged with the same offence. Ironically, considering the anger not only of political groups but also of "child protection" organizations over these charges, at the time the new law was drafted it was proposed that consensual sex between children of similar age over 12 be decriminalized, but this was rejected due to pressure from right-wing parties and ideological groups, who claimed that criminalization was necessary to "protect children". Abject failure, I'd say: not only does criminalization not prevent sexually active adolescents (as we know from research all over the world), but it lands children in court, and sometimes with criminal records, and what is worse it may deter the young from seeking health advice and services, and from reporting unwanted sexual contact, for fear of not being believed, and ending up as the criminal.

Withdraw all the charges! They van screw when they like who they like where they like. On the headmaster's table, in the middle of the street, anywhere at all. Give each of them a medal, a nice big gong to advertise their total contempt for acceptable behaviour.

One word. "Pathetic' hey kids took drug and had a gang bang. why not leave it to parents to take it up. law has no role here.

5yrs ago students (reach kids)(boys & girls) from eastrand bought booze & then hired a bus to a certain surbub to have group sex. They were arrested by police. this is not new. this girl obviously agreed & felt embarrased after, she cannot be a victim.

This is the reality of a large proportion of the youth in this country. They are exposed to sex and drugs at a young age, have no respect for their own bodies, or the law, therefore they will do what they want, when they want. Look at the example that they have to look up to in their leaders - and people wonder why our society is rotten to the core. (No, I'm not an old prude - just a concerned mother of young daughters)