Dear Portfolio Committee on Police,

I am writing about the Committee's Report on the Parliamentary Inquiry into Statutory Rape, dated 26 August 2026. It records 3,232 statutory rape cases from 2020/21 to 2024/25, of which 1,853 were withdrawn and 449 resulted in convictions. It recommends that every pregnancy or birth involving a child under 16 automatically trigger a mandatory interdepartmental referral and a preliminary criminal investigation.

Will the Committee set a date by which SAPS must report on implementing this recommendation, and will that report be made public?

Thank you for your attention.

Kind regards,
Hannah