South Africa's social development department failed to maintain the register meant to bar child abusers from working with children, and other agencies didn't feed it names, a court ruled.
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On 7 August 2026 the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria (Judge Nyathi, case 163185/2025) declared the Department of Social Development's failure to adequately keep and maintain the National Child Protection Register unlawful and inconsistent with the Constitution. The court also declared unlawful the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development's failure to ensure court registrars report people convicted of listed offences against children, the police commissioner's failure to send required conviction particulars, and the South African Council of Educators' failure to vet and report educators against the register. The case was brought by the Teddy Bear Foundation after a perpetrator was added to the register only after prolonged delays and repeated intervention; the social development department had argued there was no backlog. The court ordered the department to put mechanisms in place to maintain and update the register, required quarterly reporting from the justice department and the educators' council, and ordered the council to report people found unsuitable to work with children within seven days.
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