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President Jacob Zuma has signed into law the Criminal Matters Amendment Act, which is intended to help to curb infrastructure-related crimes, government’s online news service reported on Tuesday.
The act amends the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977 and would see the introduction of harsher sentences for the destruction of essential infrastructure and more stringent bail conditions and applications for perpetrators.
“The amendments provide for changes to the law pertaining to infrastructure-related offences by making stricter provisions for the granting of bail, the sentencing of offenders and creating a new offence to criminalise damage to, tampering with or destruction of essential infrastructure, which may interfere with the provision of basic services to the public,” the Presidency said on Monday.
The Act also aimed to create a new offence relating to essential infrastructure, as well as amend the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, 1998, so as to insert a new offence in Schedule 1 to the Act.