Deputy Speaker, the ACDP - and I am sure everyone in this House believes that any form of torture must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Torture is a recognised crime in South Africa and perpetrators of this specific crime can be charged, tried and prosecuted under the Provision and Combating of Torture of Persons Act of 2013, which the ACDP also supported.
However, the effective implementation of this Act remains unclear, and it should be noted that sadly, torture happens in police cells, correctional services, other places of detention or where freedom of movement is restricted. On the streets and in some case even in some people's private spaces.
Victims of torture in post apartheid South Africa include arrested persons, criminal suspects and even non South African nationals. Sadly, very few prosecutions are instituted with success. Chairperson, the idea of this optional protocol is to set up a national preventative mechanism and the South African Human Rights Commission