When the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in South Africa, the government enacted the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1997 which, amongst other things, stipulated that a person convicted of some of the scheduled ...

Life imprisonment has been part of South Africa's penal regime for decades. This article analyses how this form of punishment has changed in meaning in since 1906. The author looks at life imprisonment during the death ...

Although South African courts have expressly held that any evidence obtained through torture is always inadmissible, the author is unaware of a decision from a South African court to the effect that evidence obtained through ...

Unlike countries such as the United Kingdom, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Australia, in South Africa companies and associations are not permitted to institute private prosecutions although natural persons have a right to institute ...

On 1 April 2010 the South African Child Justice Act (CJA or the Act) commenced. The long title of the Act states, inter alia, that the purpose of the Act is 'to establish a criminal justice system for children, who are in ...

For many years the South African government has been reluctant to enter into prisoner transfer agreements. This reluctance is demonstrated by at least two instances. The first is that in 2000 there was an attempt by an ...

The general rule in South Africa is that, when an offence is committed, the suspect has to be prosecuted by a public prosecutor. However, there is an exception whereby a victim of crime is permitted to institute a private ...

Organised crime2 is one of the main challenges that governments and intergovernmental organisations3 are grappling with. Its history, consequences and different forms in South Africa are well documented4 and fall outside ...