The prescribed penalty was a fine of up to R4000 or imprisonment for up to two years, or both.

Legal under the case of Du Toit v Minister of Welfare and Population Development, later made official through the Consolidated Children's Act of 2010

Between these time frames, the military often sent homosexual soldiers to psychiatric hospitals for shock therapy and, in some cases, sexual reassignment surgeries. Between 1967 and 1991, all white males over the age of 16 were conscripted in South Africa

Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957, as inserted by the Immorality Amendment Act 2 of 1988, set the age of consent for gay and lesbian sex at 19, as opposed to 16 for straight sex. However, in the case of Geldenhuys v National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others the Constitutional Court found this discrimination to be unconstitutional, and set 16 as the uniform age of consent retroactively to 27 April 1994.

Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957, as inserted by the Immorality Amendment Act 2 of 1988, set the age of consent for gay and lesbian sex at 19, as opposed to 16 for straight sex. Gay male sex was in any case illegal for all ages.

Even though gay male sex was illegal for all ages, section 14 of the Immorality Act 23 of 1957, as inserted by the Immorality Amendment Act 57 of 1969, set the age of consent for gay male sex at 19, as opposed to 16 for straight sex. There was no age of consent for lesbian sex.