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AfriForum Youth is preparing a criminal complaint against Pierre de Vos after he apparently shared child pornography on his Twitter profile.

The youth organisation will file complaints against De Vos with the South African Police Service (SAPS) in accordance with section 19A(4) of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses and Related Matters) Amendment Act (32 of 2007), as well as the provision against the distribution of child pornography in the Film and Publication Act (65 of 1996, as amended).

In the post that De Vos retweeted on 11 September 2022, around 17:00, a young boy could be seen being sexually abused by an adult man.

“It is beyond my understanding that anyone could be guilty of such atrocities. What’s more: that they share it on a public platform, try to erase it and get away with it scot-free. This while human trafficking, which is directly related to this type of sexual crime, is a threatening issue in South Africa,” says René van der Vyver, spokesperson for AfriForum Youth.

AfriForum Youth has therefore also sent a letter to the University of Cape Town (UCT) to demand that disciplinary steps be taken against Pierre de Vos, who is part of the management of UCT. The youth organisation is of the opinion that a person who is guilty of such a misdeed cannot take a position as a mentor of young people. The leading institution should act strongly against such shameful behavior by one of their representatives.

Furthermore, children should be protected from sexual abuse, while the case of a prominent figure spreading child pornography on social media sends a strongly distorted message. The youth organisation also took action in this regard and reported De Vos to Twitter for the inappropriate content he shared.

“The fact that the original post was made on 9 December 2021 indicates that De Vos must have searched for this type of content before he made the mistake of sharing it to his profile. We cannot allow this incident to go unnoticed and set the precedent that it is acceptable,” concludes van der Vyver.

Issued by AfriForum