Hon Chairperson, my apologies. It has been a long day. But once again, hon Chairperson and members of this august House, the Child Justice Amendment Bill's primary objective is to amend the Child Justice Act, 2008, Act No 75 of 2008, in order to:
Increase the minimum age of criminal capacity of a child, to remove the requirement to prove criminal capacity for purposes of diversion and preliminary inquiries and to provide for consequential amendments.
One of the key features of the Child Justice Act is that it provides for a minimum age of criminal capacity of children. The age of criminal capacity is defined as the age children are presumed to know the difference between right and wrong and to act in accordance with that knowledge. The key aim therefore of the Child Justice Amendment Bill is to increase the age of criminal capacity of children from 10 to 12 years as this would also be in line with South Africa's international obligations.
South Africa ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter, and thereby incurred various obligations regarding the treatment of children, including children in conflict with the law. States parties, like South Africa, were encouraged to increase their minimum age of criminal capacity to 12 years as an absolute minimum and to continue to increase it to a higher age level. It is in line with this obligation that the committee agreed to increase the age of criminal capacity from 10 years to 12 years and noted that the department would review the age within five years again.
The fifth Parliament Select Committee on Security and Justice advertised the Bill for public comment. Two submissions were received; one from the Centre for Child Law and the second one from Mr Marius Redelinghuys. During its deliberations on the Bill and the submissions, the department noted that the Centre for Child Law submission was largely catered for by the Portfolio Committee on Justice amendments made to the Bill and the department replied in detail to Mr Redelinghuys' submission.
In light of this, the committee determined that no amendments were required to the Bill and proceeded to adopt the Bill without amendments. The Select Committee on Security and Justice recommends
that the NCOP approves the report and the Bill without amendments. I thank you. [Applause.]