Question NW2359 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
28 July 2023 - NW2359
Van Zyl, Ms A M to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
Whether the National Register for Sex Offenders is up to date; if not, what (a) are the reasons for the backlog, (b) is the total number of days that constitute the backlog and (c) measures have been taken to improve the accuracy and completeness of the National Register for Sex Offenders; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
The National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO) was established to curb sexual offending and re-offending in the country. In response to the demands made by women who marched under the umbrella of #TheTotalShutDown Movement in August 2018, the particulars of all convicted sex offenders are now entered into the Register. Before then, only entries of sex offenders convicted of sex crimes involving child survivors and survivors with mental disabilities were made. With the recent legal developments, the scope of protection afforded by the NRSO has been extended to vulnerable persons.
Whether the National Register for Sex Offenders is up to date
The Register is up to date, as it is built on the integrated case management system, which instantaneously captures cases as and when the court convicts the offender of a sexual offence. With this system, the Registrar is able to know all pending cases of sexual offences, of which the particulars of the offenders can be potentially entered into the Register.
(a) Are there reasons for the backlog?
As stated there is no backlog on entries on the register. However, there is a backlog for clearance certificates caused by the malware attack in 2021. Since 2022/2023 financial year, the Department has included an indicator in the Annual Performance Plan to eliminate this backlog, and the plan is to achieve this goal in this financial year.
(b) What is the total number of days that constitute a backlog?
As indicated above, the only backlog is on the applications for the NRSO clearance certificates. In terms of Regulation 18 of the National Register for Sex Offenders, the Registrar is required to issue a clearance certificate as soon as is reasonably practicable, but within 10 working days after the receipt of application. Any application that is still not considered beyond 10 working days after the date of receipt is classified as a backlog application.
(c) What measures have been taken to improve the accuracy and completeness of the National Register for Sex Offenders; if so, what are the relevant details?
The Register used to have inaccurate and incomplete entries until 2018 when the Department upgraded the integrated case management system for the Register to include SMART functionalities that automatically detect wrong entries. To address the inaccuracies entered prior to 2018, the Department introduced a Data Verification Project and employed data capturers to clean up the data. On 31 March 2018, the Data Verification Project was finalised and over 19 668 ring-fenced cases were validated as the NRSO entries. The NRSO was subsequently audited by the office of the AG in 2019 and its information was found to be Complete, Accurate and Valid.