{"id":541516,"date":"2021-11-28T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T05:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=541516"},"modified":"2021-11-26T13:39:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T11:39:04","slug":"south-africa-plans-to-change-the-definition-of-harassment-and-other-new-forms-of-abuse-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/541516\/south-africa-plans-to-change-the-definition-of-harassment-and-other-new-forms-of-abuse-you-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa plans to change the definition of &#8216;harassment&#8217; and other new forms of abuse you should know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Government recently introduced the Domestic Violence Amendment Bill to amend the Domestic Violence Act.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed amendments include some new and revised definitions of domestic violence and other types of abuse, said Dakalo Singo, director at Werksmans Attorneys.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that the bill has been approved by Parliament and was sent to the president for his assent. If the president assents, the bill will become law and the definitions outlined below will come into operation.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Coercion and control<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Coercive Behaviour<\/strong> means &#8216;to compel or force a complainant to abstain from doing anything that they have a lawful right to do, or to do anything that they have a lawful right to abstain from doing&#8217;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Controlling Behaviour<\/strong> is &#8216;behaviour towards a complainant that has the effect of making the complainant dependent on, or subservient to, the respondent&#8217; and includes isolating them from sources of support; exploiting their resources or capacities for personal gain; depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance or escape; or regulating their everyday behaviour\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;In general, coercive and controlling behaviours are calculated to erode, or have the effect of eroding a complainant\u2019s individuality, self-identity or self-determination.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They involve different manipulative tactics that subjugate a complainant to the will of the abuser until the complainant can no longer be said to be acting of their own volition,&#8221; said Singo.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>New forms of abuse<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Elder Abuse<\/strong> means abuse of elderly people &#8211; females who are 60 years or older, and males who are 65 years or older. It entails any conduct or lack of appropriate action, occurring within a domestic relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes or is likely to cause harm or distress to an older person.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Expose a Child to Domestic Violence<\/strong> means to intentionally cause a child to see or hear domestic violence, or to experience its effects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related Person Abuse<\/strong> involves committing, or threatening to commit, acts of physical violence or damage to the property of any member of the family or household of a complainant, or a person in a close relationship with the complainant, where such actions are intended or calculated to cause harm to the complainant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sexual Harassment<\/strong> introduces a specified range of unwelcome or abusive sexual conduct or sexually oriented requests which constitute domestic violence. This is in addition to the pre-existing definition of \u201csexual abuse\u201d in the Act.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Spiritual Abuse <\/strong>includes\u00a0advocating hatred against the complainant because of their religious or spiritual beliefs, that constitutes incitement to cause harm to the complainant;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Revised definitons<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This section includes exisitng definitons which are being updated by the new bill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Economic Abuse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This will include additional forms of conduct including the use of financial resources of a complainant, without the complainant\u2019s permission and the coercing of the complainant to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Relinquish control over assets or income or:<\/li>\n<li>Sign a legal document that would enable the complainant\u2019s finances to be managed by another person<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Emotional, Verbal or Psychological Abuse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This now will include the following additional forms of conduct:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The wilful damaging or destruction of any property in close vicinity of a complainant;<\/li>\n<li>Tto harm or threaten to harm a household pet or other animal, whose welfare affects a complainant\u2019s well-being;<\/li>\n<li>To disclose or threaten to disclose a complainant\u2019s sexual orientation or other private information concerning a complainant, to others without the complainant\u2019s consent;<\/li>\n<li>To threaten the complainant with the death or injury of another person or damage of another person\u2019s property; or<\/li>\n<li>Threats to commit suicide or self-harm\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Harassment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This will be expanded to include, amongst other things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Specified forms of disclosure of, or unauthorised access to electronic communications;<\/li>\n<li>Monitoring or tracking of a complainant\u2019s movements, activities or interpersonal associations;<\/li>\n<li>Unreasonable interference with a complainant\u2019s exclusive use of property.<\/li>\n<li>Notably, the Bill will delete the stand-alone definition of \u201cstalking\u201d and will incorporate it into the revised definition of \u201charassment\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Intimidation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Intimidation will be wholly redefined as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Physical violence, or damage to property belonging, to a complainant or any other person;<\/li>\n<li>Threats of physical violence, or damage to property belonging, to a complainant or any other person;<\/li>\n<li>To deprive the complainant or any other person of their liberty or threatening to do so; or<\/li>\n<li>Conveying a threat, or causing a complainant to receive a threat, which induces fear of physical violence, or damage to property belonging to a complainant or any other person through electronic communication,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Where such conduct is intended to compel a complainant to abstain from doing anything that they have a lawful right to do, or to do anything that they have a lawful right to abstain from doing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Physical Abuse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This will include actual or threatened:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Physical violence;<\/li>\n<li>Deprivation of a complainant\u2019s liberty;<\/li>\n<li>Administration or attempted administration of drugs or any other chemical substances to a complainant without their consent;<\/li>\n<li>Withholding of a complainant\u2019s medication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/541444\/new-laws-planned-for-schools-and-elections-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New laws planned for schools and elections in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government recently introduced the Domestic Violence Amendment Bill to amend the Domestic Violence Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":454274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[26,9482],"class_list":["post-541516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-werksmans-attorneys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541516"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541994,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541516\/revisions\/541994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}