Cape Town - Child rights activists want the law changed to allow underage victims of sexual assault to have their say in court.
As the Sexual Offences Act stands now, children must first undergo a competency test to determine if they can testify in court.
Possible amendments to the act were discussed recently at a national forum on the implementation of the Sexual Offences Act of 2007. Advocate Bronwyn Pithey of the Women’s Legal Centre said child victims had to undergo a strict test used to determine whether the child was fit to testify.
She said although the test was used to determine whether the child could define right from wrong, often children were unable to articulate themselves clearly during the test.
“Let the children testify in court and then the court can make a determination based on the quality and extent of that testimony,” said Pithey.
Karen Hollely of the Institute for Child Witness Research and Training said the competency test itself was inaccurate.
“The test is based on children identifying colours and objects. There is no research done on this test model.
“We’ve had many cases where the child is asked by the presiding officers, communicating over TV screen monitors, what colour the table was. From the child’s perspective, the colour was red, and because in the screens the colour appears pink, the child is found incompetent,” she said.
Hollely said a competency test doesn’t test truth or lies, as it should.
“The competency test should test truth and also has a moral obligation of truth. The test used by courts is berserk. While the competency of any witness has to be done, the child’s one is rigorous, based on an old idea that children tend to lie.”
Hollely said it was important to get a standard test that had been researched and tested.
She mentioned a case in Port Elizabeth where the presiding officer ruled on the importance of the testimony of a mentally challenged individual, to get the victim’s perspective.
Civil organisations at the forum called for operation of section 55A of the act, which provides a framework for sexual offences courts to be designated courts that will have only sexual offences on the roll.
Pithey said nothing had been done to regulate implementation of these courts.
Crime stats show that there were 49660 reported sexual offences in 2016/17.