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South African criminal law is the body of national law relating to crime in South Africa.In the definition of Van der Walt et al., a crime is "conduct which common or statute law prohibits and expressly or impliedly subjects to punishment remissible by the state alone and which the offender cannot avoid by his own act once he has been convicted."
The Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977) is an act of the Parliament of South Africa that governs criminal procedure in South Africa's legal system.It details the procedure for the whole system of criminal law, including search and seizure, arrest, the filing of charges, bail, the plea, the testimony of witnesses and the law of evidence, the verdict and sentence, and appeal.
The Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 lists four methods of securing the attendance of an accused person in court. [4] These bear an important relationship to the constitutional rights of freedom and security of the person, [5] of freedom of movement and residence, [6] of access to the courts [7] and of "arrested, detained and accused persons."
Countries (in pink) which share the mixed South African legal system. South Africa has a 'hybrid' or 'mixed' legal system, [1] formed by the interweaving of a number of distinct legal traditions: a civil law system inherited from the Dutch, a common law system inherited from the British, and a customary law system inherited from indigenous Africans (often termed African Customary Law, of which ...
South Africa's municipalities may, in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, make by-laws for the effective administration of the matters it has a right to administer. The areas within which a municipality may make by-laws are listed in Schedule 4 Part B, and Schedule 5 Part B, of the Constitution.
Section 51 of South Africa's Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 prescribes the minimum sentences for other types of murders, rapes and robberies to 25, 15 and 10 years respectively, so parole is almost always granted to prisoners serving life sentences after the minimum sentence for the lesser crime has been served. However, a prisoner must be ...
The Judges' Rules are a set of guidelines about police and questioning and the acceptability of the resulting statements and confessions as evidence in court. Originally prepared for police in England, the Rules and their successor documents have become a part of legal procedure not just in Britain but in places as far afield as Jamaica, Zambia and Western Samoa where English law is followed.
In 1913, the South African Police (SAP) was created by Proclamation 18 to function as the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa. [8] SAP was an amalgamation of the four police forces of the colonies (Cape, Natal, Orange River, Transvaal). [ 9 ]