Children can't wait: delay on the sex offender register is a betrayal

RIGOROUS VETTING PROCESSES

- DR SHAHEDA OMAR

ABDOOL Kader Yusuf, 66, appeared in the Chatsworth Magistrate's Court on Thursday, where his bail application was scheduled to go ahead. Yusuf, a convicted child 'sex pest', is alleged to have raped a 10-year-old girl from Chatsworth while he was out on parole. | Supplied

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WHY do some convicted child sex offenders reoffend? And why, in 2025, is South Africa still failing to make its National Register for Sex Offenders publicly accessible?

These are not just bureaucratic questions. They cut to the core of how seriously we, as a society, value the safety and dignity of our children.

For survivors and those who work in child protection, these questions are not academic. They are urgent, painful and personal. Every delay, every policy failure, every unmonitored offender represents the possibility of another child’s life being shattered.

Research has long shown that prior conviction for a sexual offence is one of the strongest indicators of future risk.

In one Canadian study, offenders with no prior record had a 19% reconviction rate over 15 years, compared with nearly 37% among those previously convicted.

In Australia, a comprehensive review found that about 15% of child sexual offenders were reconvicted, most within two to four years after release. But the risk never disappears.

Some long-term studies found reoffending even 15 years to 20 years later. These numbers may sound small, but each percentage point represents real children, each with lifelong consequences.

It only takes one offender, in one school or youth centre, to devastate dozens of lives. Many perpetrators who reoffend share similar patterns: deeply entrenched deviant sexual interests, distorted beliefs (“the child wanted it”), poor impulse control, and an inability to form healthy adult relationships.