The Department of Justice and Correctional Services plans to revive and introduce a number of bills into parliament this financial year.<\/p>\n
Presenting his departmental budget speech<\/a> <\/strong>on Tuesday (23 July), Justice minister Ronald Lamola said that this would include the long-awaited introduction of the ‘Hate Speech Bill’ and the ‘Cybercrimes Bill’.<\/p>\n You can find more information on some of the proposed bills below.<\/p>\n The Cybercrimes Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n The Cybercrimes Bill seeks to:<\/p>\n While the majority of the bill focuses on criminalising the theft and interference of data, it has also introduced new laws surrounding any \u2018malicious\u2019 electronic communication.<\/p>\n Concerns have previously been raised about the \u2018vagueness<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 of these messaging rules, especially because of the steep consequences attached to them.<\/p>\n Notably, any person who contravenes one of the following provisions is liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding\u00a0three years<\/strong>, or to both a fine and imprisonment.<\/p>\n The Land Court Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n Lamola said that the new Land Court Bill is ‘aimed at promoting land justice and the democratisation of land ownership’.<\/p>\n “Through this bill, we aim to address some of the challenges that have been experienced with the current Land Claims Court dispensation,” he said.<\/p>\n The bill will likely tie into government’s push towards land expropriation without compensation, however, it is not clear how it will change the current Land Claims Court process.<\/p>\n The Child Justice Amendment Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n The primary objective of the new bill is to increase the minimum age of criminal capacity of children from 10 years to 12 years \u2013 and to remove the requirement to prove criminal capacity for purposes of diversion and preliminary inquiries.<\/p>\n A diversion program is a form of sentence in which the criminal offender joins a rehabilitation program, which will help remedy the behaviour leading to the original arrest and avoid conviction and a criminal record.<\/p>\n The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n Under the new law, hate speech will be defined as a clear intention to be harmful or to incite harm, or promote or propagate hatred on the basis of these characteristics:<\/p>\n The bill also includes a section of scenarios where the hate speech rules will not apply. The section states that the offence of hate speech does not apply in respect, terms of the above characteristics, if it is done in good faith in the course of engagement in:<\/p>\n The Traditional Courts Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n The Traditional Courts Bill promises to shake up South African customary law by giving more power to Traditional Leaders in proceedings.<\/p>\n It also seeks to align traditional courts with the Constitution on issues such as dignity, equality, sexism and LGBTI rights.<\/p>\n
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