South Africa's Constitutional Court Thursday decided that non-consensual anal penetration constitutes rape, but only if the victim is female.

South African current law defines rape as non-consensual vaginal penetration. Rape of a minor carried a minimum sentence of life imprisonment. Anal penetration, including of minors, falls under the lesser offence of indecent assault, for which there is no prescribed sentence.

The court said that it had decided to exclude non-consensual anal penetration of males from the expanded rape definition to avoid encroaching on the powers of the legislature. The court was to rule on an expanded definition of rape that would include non-consensual anal rape.

The Constitutional Court changed the rape definition while the court was hearing a challenge from a man who was convicted of rape by a Pretoria court for the anal penetration of a nine-year-old girl. While agreeing that rape did include non-consensual anal penetration of a female, the court overturned the man's rape conviction, saying that the extended rape definition could not be retrospectively applied.

The case was referred back to a lower court for sentencing.

South Africa has one of the world's highest rape rates. Some 54,926 cases are reported annually, but real figures are thought to be much higher as many cases go unreported. The expanded definition of rape will likely see the statistics climb further.

Analysts and NGOs have questioned the government's commitment to getting tough on sexual violence given that the Sexual Offences bill, which would amend the Sexual Offences Act of 1964, has been ten years in the making and that the first public hearings on the bill were held four years ago.