Case Law[2024] ZAGPPHC 830South Africa
Fox v S (A242/22) [2024] ZAGPPHC 830 (29 August 2024)
High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Pretoria)
29 August 2024
Judgment
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# South Africa: North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria
South Africa: North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria
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## Fox v S (A242/22) [2024] ZAGPPHC 830 (29 August 2024)
Fox v S (A242/22) [2024] ZAGPPHC 830 (29 August 2024)
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sino date 29 August 2024
FLYNOTES:
CRIMINAL – Murder –
Evidence
–
Inferential
reasoning based on facts – Husband convicted of murdering
his wife and sentenced to life imprisonment –
Three shots
fired and one striking the deceased – Two holes in window
indicating that two of shots had been fired from
outside and third
fired from inside – Only appellant and deceased present in
the bedroom – Ineluctable inference
that it was appellant
who had shot and killed the deceased – Appeal dismissed.
SAFLII
Note:
Certain
personal/private details of parties or witnesses have been
redacted from this document in compliance with the law
and
SAFLII
Policy
IN THE HIGH COURT
OF SOUTH AFRICA
(GAUTENG DIVISION,
PRETORIA)
Case No. A242/22
(1) REPORTABLE:
YES
/
NO
(2) OF INTEREST TO
OTHER JUDGES:
YES
/
NO
(3) REVISED
DATE:…
29 August
2024
SIGNATURE:.
In
the matter between:
FOX,
EDWARD KENNEDY
APPELLANT
And
THE
STATE
RESPONDENT
Coram:
Neukircher,
Millar
et
Kooverjie JJ
Heard
on:
5
August 2024
Delivered:
29
August 2024 - This judgment was handed down electronically by
circulation to the parties' representatives by email,
by being
uploaded to the
CaseLines
system of the GD and
by release to SAFLII. The date and time for hand-down is deemed
to be 10H00 on 29 August
2024.
ORDER
It
is Ordered:
[1]
The appeal is dismissed.
[2]
The appellant’s bail is revoked, and he is ordered to report
to the De
Deur Police Station within 48 hours of the handing down
of this order in order to commence serving the sentence of life
imprisonment
imposed upon him by the Court
a quo
. If he
does not so report, the South African Police Services are directed
to forthwith arrest him for that purpose.
JUDGMENT
MILLAR
J, (
NEUKIRCHER AND
KOOVERJIE JJ CONCURRING)
[1]
On 12
December 2016, the appellant was arraigned before the High Court on a
single charge of murder. In addition, the State
sought, in the
event of a conviction, the imposition of a minimum sentence of life
imprisonment.
[1]
The
appellant was subsequently, on 22 August 2017, found guilty and
thereafter on 2 October 2017 sentenced to life imprisonment.
The appellant was t granted bail and is presently out on bail.
[2]
On the day that the appellant was sentenced, he
applied for leave to appeal against both his conviction and sentence
which was refused
by the Court
a quo
.
Thereafter, on 19 March 2021, leave to appeal to the Full Court of
this Division was granted by the Supreme Court of Appeal
against the
conviction only.
[3]
The delay in the hearing of the present appeal was
in part occasioned in consequence of the need for the record to be
reconstructed.
After the reconstruction, a question remained as
to whether or not the appellant was satisfied with the
reconstruction. During
the present hearing, Counsel for the
appellant confirmed that the appellant was satisfied with the
reconstructed record and that
the appeal could be decided on such
record.
[4]
Save for the evidence of the ballistic expert who
testified for the State and the expert for the appellant, the
evidence of all
the other witnesses that were called was
uncontentious. For this reason, I do not intend to deal with
the evidence given
specifically by each witness. The Court
a
quo
set out and evaluated the evidence
of each witness that was called in the trial. It is not necessary to
repeat this exercise for
purposes of the present appeal.
[5]
In the early hours of the morning of 6 November
2014, Ms. Che (Shedodel) Lesley Fox (the deceased), the wife of
the appellant,
was killed. The appellant and the deceased had
been married since 2008. They had married on the day that she
turned
21 and had two children together. At the time, the
eldest (a girl) was 7 years old and the youngest (a boy) was 3 years
old.
The appellant worked as a police officer and the deceased
in an office.
[6]
According to the appellant, on the evening of 5
November 2014, often referred to as “Guy Fawkes Night”,
the family had
shared a meal, and the children had gone to bed.
The appellant and the deceased had stayed up later watching a soccer
match
on the television and chatting. They too thereafter had
retired
for the night. The
doors of the house were locked, and all the windows were closed.
[7]
During the early hours of the morning on 6
November 2014, at some time after 02h30, the appellant and deceased
had been awoken by
a loud noise. They sat up and the deceased
had asked the appellant what had made the noise, and he said that he
thought it
was probably firecrackers. He then heard two further
loud noises.
[8]
The appellant had then got up out of bed and gone
to the lounge window to look outside to see the cause of the noise
and whether
or not there were any fireworks or smoke from them in the
air. He did not see anything, so he went to switch on the light
outside the front door, but it did not work (although he recalled
that it had been working before, he had retired for the night).
[9]
He opened the front door slightly and peered
outside. It was very quiet outside. He saw that the
driveway gate was slightly
ajar and had then gone outside to close
it. While outside to close the gate, his dog had come running
back into the property.
He looked up and down the road and over
the walls of his property but saw no-one. While walking
back into the house,
he noticed that the driver’s door of the
deceased’s car was slightly ajar. He went back into
the house
to fetch a torch and the car keys so that he could lock it.
[10]
On his way back to his bedroom, he heard a sound
which he described as “water dripping” and which he
thought was coming
from the bathroom. When he entered the
bedroom and switched on the light, he saw blood dripping from the
deceased onto the
carpet. He saw a wound on the deceased’s
forehead and blood coming from it. He went to the deceased and
shook
her and became overwrought when she did not respond. He
immediately went to the safe in his bedroom (where he kept his
service
pistol) and took the service pistol out of the safe.
[11]
He then called the emergency services and at the
same time dressed himself. He ran out of the house and across
the road to
his neighbour Mr. Venter and also called his colleague,
Colonel Van Wyk, who lived nearby. He told them that there had been
a
shooting at his house.
[12]
Mr. and Mrs. Venter accompanied him back to his
house. When they entered, they found the appellant’s son
standing in
his bedroom doorway. Mrs. Venter took his son and
put him back to bed and closed the bedroom door and also closed his
daughter’s
bedroom door.
[13]
He thereafter called both his own family as well
as the family of the deceased to inform them of what had happened.
Mr. Venter
kept company with him until Colonel van Wyk arrived which
was at approximately 03h00. While they were walking around the
property, the appellant noticed two holes in the bedroom window.
At some stage, Colonel van Wyk took the appellant’s
service
pistol from him. Thereafter, both his mother and brother
arrived as did the paramedics as well as his mother-in-law,
brother-in-law and sister-in-law.
[14]
There was an altercation in the house when his
mother-in-law and sister-in-law accused him of having killed the
deceased.
The deceased’s mother subsequently testified
that the marriage was an unhappy one and that the deceased had told
her that
she intended to leave the appellant. The appellant testified
that while they had been standing in the doorway of the main bedroom,
he heard the paramedics tell his brother-in-law, who had apparently
picked something up, to drop what he had picked up as it was
evidence
(although he did not see him pick up anything and did not know what
he had picked up).
[15]
It was at this stage that Colonel van Wyk had
asked everyone inside the house to go outside. The appellant
said that, whilst
they were standing outside, he saw his
brother-in-law kick a cartridge which was lying on the ground. He
testified that there were
three cartridges lying on the ground
outside.
[16]
When the police arrived, they
inter
alia
took a statement from the
appellant, took photographs of the scene and conducted gunshot
residue tests on the appellant. Once
the deceased was removed to the
mortuary, the appellant left the house with his children and
went to his mother’s house.
[17]
Some hours later, Captain Blignaut, the South
African Police Service Forensic Ballistic Examiner, attended
the scene.
By the time she attended, the three cartridge cases
found outside the main bedroom window had been removed, the deceased
had been
removed and two bullets (found inside the main bedroom) had
also been removed.
[18]
Insofar as these three items of evidence were
concerned, Captain Blignaut was constrained to conduct her
investigation based on
her observations at the scene together with
the photographs that had been taken earlier of the aforementioned.
While investigating
the scene, Captain Blignaut also found a
third bullet on the floor underneath one of the curtains.
[19]
Besides her investigation on the scene, Captain
Blignaut had also attended the autopsy of the deceased and given the
opportunity
to observe and determine both the entrance and exit
wounds on the deceased.
[20]
In the consideration and evaluation of the
evidence of both Captain Blignaut and Mr. De Klerk, a noteworthy
feature of the present
case is that by the time Captain Blignaut
arrived at the scene, some hours after the appellant had left, the
crime scene had been
cleaned. The appellant testified as
follows:
“
My
Lord like I said earlier on my brother’s ex-wife brought the
keys, my house keys and gave it to one of the family members
in the
house and she told them
that they finished
cleaning the house. I do not know who gave them permission.
She did not say who gave them permission,
she just came and said they
finished cleaning the house.”
[21]
There was no evidence before the court in regard
to how or why this had occurred. It did however impact upon the
investigation
of Captain Blignaut who, together with Mr. De Klerk,
was constrained to have greater regard to the photographs than they
might
necessarily have done.
[22]
The gunshot residue testing was of no assistance
in the matter by virtue of the fact that the appellant had gone to
the safe and
retrieved his service pistol. The evidence
established that although the appellant had last fired his service
pistol at a
range in July 2016, gunshot residue could remain on both
the pistol and its holster for some time and so the positive
findings
of gunshot residue on the appellant were inconclusive.
[23]
It is not in dispute that 3 shots were fired or
that the deceased was struck by only one. These are
incontrovertible facts.
It is also incontrovertible that the
windows of the main bedroom were closed at the time the deceased was
killed and that
only two holes were discovered in the window.
[24]
Captain Blignaut testified that in respect of
these two holes, each had been caused by a single bullet passing
through it.
She was able to match the trajectory of two of the
bullets which had struck the wall in the bedroom with the holes in
the window.
For the third
shot,
she had no hole in the window. She testified that besides the
probability of someone being able to fire two shots through
precisely
the same hole in a window (at night) being so remote as to render it
almost impossible. She had attempted to replicate
such a feat
in a laboratory setting but had been unable to do so. It was
her conclusion and her evidence that only 1 round
had passed through
each of the two holes and that accordingly, since the windows were
all closed, the third round could only
have been fired from
inside the bedroom.
[25]
Additionally, based on her observation of the
position of the entrance wound on the deceased and her position on
the bed, as demonstrated
on the photographs, she concluded that the
third shot was fired from within the room and not on the same
trajectory as either
of the two other shots that had been
discharged. It is apposite to mention that although the
appellant testified that after
hearing the first noise, both he and
the deceased sat up. This version was never put to Captain
Blignaut.
[26]
In my view the evidence of the deceased
sitting up also seems to me to have been an afterthought in order to
cast doubt upon
the evidence of Captain Blignaut regarding her
finding that because of the angle at which the fatal shot had entered
the head of
the deceased, it must have been fired from inside the
room. This evidence was presumably tendered in order to change
the
position of the deceased so as to reconcile the defence of two
shots having been fired on the same trajectory through the same hole
in the window.
[27]
Since the only two persons who were in the room at
the time that the deceased was shot and killed were her and the
appellant, the
ineluctable inference was that it was the appellant
who had shot and killed the deceased.
[28]
The appellant sought to impugn the evidence of his
mother-in-law that the deceased had told her that she had planned on
leaving
him and that the marriage was over. His evidence was
that his mother-in-law had a motive to lie about the marriage because
he had previously arrested one of her sons who had been convicted and
imprisoned. He also testified that he believed that
the person
who may have shot the deceased was someone that had an axe to grind
with him because of his work as a police officer.
Beyond the
bare assertions of the appellant in this regard, there was no further
evidence led in this regard.
[29]
The appellant tendered the evidence of Mr. De
Klerk, to counter that of Captain Blignaut. Mr. De Klerk was
also a Ballistic
Forensic Examiner in the South African Police
Service who had gone into private practice. While Captain
Blignaut had the
advantage of attending the scene shortly after the
death of the deceased and also attended the autopsy, Mr. De Klerk was
limited
in his evidence and the opinion he was able to give to the
photographs taken at the scene as well as the evidence and
reconstruction
of Captain Blignaut.
[30]
By the time Mr. De Klerk had been instructed to
attend the scene, the bedroom had been “
already
repaired and repainted
”
. In
other words, the evidence of Mr. De Klerk was predicated entirely on
what was available to Captain Blignaut and to her
observations and
reconstruction.
[31]
Mr. De Klerk, in his initial written opinion,
found:
“
Due
to the damage inside the bedroom (3 x Shots) I must also conclude at
this stage with all the information/evidence available
to my
disposal, I have to agree that a third shot other than the two (2)
through the window were fired, from outside (Open window)
and/or
inside
the room. Although no other evidence collaborates, proof or
disproof of this fact other than the damage against the
wall, at this
stage
I
cannot dispute that the fatal shot was or was not fired from within
the room or not.”
[Mr.
De Klerk’s emphasis].
[32]
He concluded his opinion by stating:
“
Please
take note that if we cannot find any other collaborating evidence in
the complete set of photos of a third shot through the
window, we
will not be able to dispute a third shot fired inside the room.”
[33]
Mr. De
Klerk was cross-examined at some length. Although he testified
that there was a possibility that two shots could be
fired through
the same hole in the window, he later conceded
[2]
that
there had been three shots, two being single shots fired through the
bedroom window from the outside and the third from inside
the
bedroom. This concession was correctly made.
[34]
Two shots were fired from outside and made two
holes through the window. The trajectory of these two bullets
was matched to
where these bullets were found in the wall of the
bedroom. If a third shot was fired from outside and went
through one of
the two holes that was already there, it was the
evidence of Captain Blignaut, and not disputed by Mr. De Klerk, that
for a third
shot to have gone through one of those holes and leave
absolutely no trace, was so improbable as to be impossible.
[35]
However, there is one aspect which was not
specifically addressed by either Captain Blignaut or Mr. De Klerk:
this was the probability
of a third bullet travelling at a different
trajectory passing through an existing hole in the window but leaving
no trace of having
done so. In the former situation, the
experts agreed that this was so improbable as to be impossible but in
the latter situation,
it is as a matter of logic even more so.
[36]
Both Captain Blignaut and Mr. De Klerk were
cross-examined at length on whether or not the curtains were open at
the time that the
shots were fired and about holes that were observed
in the curtains. This to my mind was a red herring.
Before the
bullets fired from outside would have passed through the
curtains, if they were closed, they would have had to have passed
through
the glass of the window and so it is at that point that the
determination of whether or not two shots were fired from
outside
or three shots were fired from outside was to be made.
[37]
Before dealing with the court
a
quo’s
evaluation of the evidence,
it is apposite to mention that at the hearing of this appeal, an
application was made for the “
entry
of new evidence”
on appeal.
The new evidence was a further opinion by Mr. De Klerk obtained some
three years after conviction and sentence
of the appellant and
shortly before the granting of leave by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
[38]
Mr. De Klerk, explained the circumstances under
which this new evidence came to light as follows:
“
I
was contacted by Advocate Shapiro and during our consultation on the
3
rd
of
December 2020, was instructed to review the case that I reconstructed
in January 2017 of a shooting incident that took place
on the 6
th
of
November 2014 at 2[...] T[...] Street Rustervaal. During this
meeting I was informed of evidence by Mr Fox (the Accused),
during
the trail (sic) that he saw one of the State witnesses kick one of
the fired cartridge cases found outside the window at
the crime
scene.”
[39]
With this information, Mr. De Klerk opined that
since one of the cartridge cases had been kicked or moved, that it
“
would be impossible to
determine an accurate firearm position
during
the shooting of any of the three (3) cartridge cases
.”
He then goes on to say:
“
Based
on this fact my view is:
That it is possible to
fire 2 shots through one hole. Due to the undetermined position
of the firearm and/or fired cartridges
- I would even call it a
simple shot to get 2 shots through 1 hole, where the muzzle of the
firearm is held close to the window
– I cannot exclude contact,
or closed contact.
Three
(3) bullet cores (According to Captain Blignaut statement marked
“LAB226749/2014(2)(3) page “3” par “3,3”
and “3,4”) were collected from the shooting scene inside
the Main bedroom at 2[...] T[...] Street, Rustervaal.
According
to me these must have been fired bullets and not “Bullet Cores”
as indicated. The main reason being
that according to all the
evidence that was collected at the scene
NO
bullet jackets or jacket fragments
could
be found at the shooting scene, as well as during the Post-mortem no
bullet fragments were found by the Doctor in the wound
track as per
his statement.
A bigger concern is
that no burnt powder partials (Not even one particle) could be found
on any of the clothing of the deceased
(According to Captain Blignaut
statement marked “LAB226749/2014(2)(3) page “5” par
“8.1”)”
[40]
The
test for the admission for new evidence on appeal is that set out in
S
v de Jager
[3]
.
In order for new evidence to be admitted, it must be demonstrated
that:
[40.1]
there is a reasonably sufficient explanation which is based on
evidence that may be true;
[40.2]
there is a
prima facie
likelihood of the truth of the
evidence;
[40.3]
the evidence should be materially relevant to the outcome of the
trial.
[41]
The reference to “
one
of the State witnesses
”
referred
to in para [38] above is erroneous and the instructions to Mr. De
Klerk in this regard are simply not correct. The
deceased’s
brother, whom the appellant in his evidence alleged had kicked the
cartridge, was never called as a witness.
[42]
Furthermore, this version of the appellant was
never put to Captain Blignaut and was never disclosed to Mr. De Klerk
prior to his
evidence for the defence. Whether or not the
appellant understood the significance of this alleged evidence is
irrelevant.
Leaving aside his background as a policeman, there
can be no doubt that the decision to call Mr. De Klerk to
testify before
the appellant was a deliberate one and the appellant
must bear the consequences of this choice.
[43]
If it had been disclosed to his counsel it would
have been put to Captain Blignaut and Mr. De Klerk would have dealt
with it in
his evidence. The inference is irresistible that
this particular assertion was an afterthought on the part of the
appellant.
It is the peg upon which he and his counsel have
opportunistically sought to hang the argument that the evidence of
Captain Blignaut
ought not to be accepted, ostensibly on the basis
that if one of the cartridges had in fact been moved this was somehow
relevant
to the position of the gun when it was fired.
[44]
The
absence of bullet jackets or fragments was dealt with by Mr. De Klerk
in his evidence and it was undisputed on the evidence
that since the
appellant had taken his service pistol in hand, no inference could be
drawn from the presence of gunshot residue
on his hand. Whether or
not there was any gunshot residue on the clothing of the deceased is
neither here nor there. The attempt
to rely on the report of Captain
Blignaut in this regard is misplaced. There was no forensic test of
the presence of gunshot residue
on the clothing of the deceased as
was done with the hands of the appellant. The conclusion drawn
by Captain Blignaut was
based upon her observation that “
During
the optical examination of the clothing, no burnt or partially burnt
propellant residue could be found on the clothing.”
[BN1]
[45]
The proximity of the gun to the window when it was
fired was dealt with by both Captain Blignaut and Mr. De Klerk. Both
testified
that the appearance of the holes in the bedroom window was
consistent with each having been caused by a single shot.
[46]
In the
present matter however, the further opinion of Mr. De Klerk which the
appellant seeks admitted, is nothing more than that
– a further
opinion. It is not based on any facts that were not known to
the appellant at the time of the hearing.
Mr. De Klerk
testified that when he had attended at the scene, the appellant had
been present but that he had not consulted with
him at all at that
time.
[4]
His
evidence was that when instructed, he did not want to know the
version of the appellant as it would make no difference to his
opinion. However, he was present during the testimony of
Captain Blignaut and heard the appellant’s version when it
was
put to her.
[47]
His new opinion is accordingly of no relevance let
alone material relevance to the outcome of the trial. For these
reasons,
the application for the admission of the so called “
new
evidence
”
must fail.
[48]
In
evaluating the evidence before it, the Court
a
quo
found
that the case was to be adjudicated on the totality of the evidence
that was before it and in so doing, was guided in the
process by the
dicta
in
R
v Blom
[5]
where,
in regard to inferential reasoning, it was held that:
“
(1)
The inference sought to be drawn must be consistent with all the
proved facts.
(2)
The proved facts should be such that they exclude every reasonable
inference from
them save the one sought to be drawn. If they do
not exclude other reasonable inferences, then there must be a doubt
whether
the inference sought to be drawn is correct.”
[49]
In
R
v Mthembu
,
[6]
expressed
the test for the evaluation of the evidence in a case such as the
present as follows:
“
I
am not satisfied that a trier of fact is obliged to isolate each
piece of evidence in a criminal case and test it by the test
of
reasonable doubt. If the conclusion of guilt can only be
reached if certain evidence is accepted or if certain evidence
is
rejected then a verdict of guilty means that such evidence must have
been accepted or rejected, as the case may be, beyond reasonable
doubt. Otherwise the verdict could not properly be arrived at.
But that does not necessarily mean that every factor
bearing on the
question of guilt must be treated as if it were a separate issue to
which the test of reasonable doubt must be distinctly
applied.
I am not satisfied that the possibilities as to the existence of
facts from which inferences may be drawn are not
fit material for
consideration in a criminal case on the general issue whether guilt
has been established beyond reasonable doubt,
even though, if the
existence of each such fact were to be treated by the test of
reasonable doubt, mere probabilities in the Crown’s
favour
would have to be excluded from consideration and mere probabilities
in favour of the accused would have to be assumed to
be certainties.
Circumstantial evidence, of course, rests ultimately on direct
evidence and there must be a foundation
of proved or probable fact
from which to work. But the border-line between proof and
probability is largely a matter of degree
as is the line between
proof by a balance of probabilities and proof beyond a reasonable
doubt. Just as a number of lines
of inference, none of them in
itself decisive, may in their total effect lead to a moral certainty
(Rex v. de Villiers)
(1944, A.D. 493
at p. 508) so, it may fairly be
reasoned, a number of probabilities as to the existence of the facts
from which inferences are
to be drawn may suffice, provided in the
result there is no reasonable doubt as to the accused’s guilt.”
[50]
The evidence in the present matter establishes the
following facts:
[50.1]
the deceased and the accused were alone in their
bedroom;
[50.2]
the deceased was shot in the head and died as a
result;
[50.3]
the windows to the bedroom were closed at all
material times;
[50.4]
three shots were fired, one striking the deceased
and two striking the bedroom wall;
[50.5]
there were two holes in the bedroom window indicating that two of the
shots had
been fired from outside;
[50.6]
expert evidence established that one of the three shots had been
fired from inside
the bedroom.
[51]
On the
basis of the evidence, the Court
a
quo,
correctly
in my view, reasoned that in the above circumstances the only
inference to be drawn from these facts
[7]
was
that the appellant had fired the fatal shot, and it is for this
reason that the appeal must fail.
[52]
There is one other aspect which requires comment.
While it is accepted that it is the duty of the appellant’s
legal
representatives to act with the utmost care and diligence in
pursuing the interests of the appellant, in the present matter
counsel
for the appellant was unrestrained by any sense of
collegiality in casting aspersions upon the honesty, integrity and
professionalism
of not only the counsel who had represented the
appellant at the trial, but the State Counsel and also the Judge
a
quo
.
[53]
Counsel’s
intemperate conduct went on to include ill-considered and unnecessary
remarks about the conduct of the judge a quo’s
conduct of the
proceedings during the reconstruction of the record, the absence of
one of the State Counsel during the reconstruction
and continued on
to include counsel who appeared for the respondent in this appeal.
Such aspersions ought never to have been cast.
There is nothing
on the record
[8]
to
suggest that any of the persons who participated in the proceedings
conducted themselves in any manner other than one which was
fair,
professional and consonant with their respective oaths of office.
[54]
In the circumstances, I propose the following
order:
[54.1]
The appeal is dismissed.
[54.2]
The appellant’s bail is revoked, and he is ordered to report to
report to the De
Deur Police Station within 48 Hours of the handing
down of this order in order to commence serving the sentence of life
imprisonment
imposed upon him by the Court
a quo
. If he does
not so report, the South African Police Services are directed to
forthwith arrest him for that purpose.
A MILLAR
JUDGE
OF THE HIGH COURT
GAUTENG DIVISION,
PRETORIA
I AGREE AND IT IS SO
ORDERED
B NEUKIRCHER
JUDGE OF THE HIGH
COURT
GAUTENG DIVISION,
PRETORIA
I
AGREE
H KOOVERJIE
JUDGE OF THE HIGH
COURT
GAUTENG DIVISION,
PRETORIA
HEARD ON:
5 AUGUST 2024.
JUDGMENT DELIVERED ON:
29 AUGUST 2024.
COUNSEL FOR THE
APPELLANT:
ADV. P SHAPIRO.
INSTRUCTED BY:
S SHAPIRO ATTORNEYS.
REFERENCE:
MR. S SHAPIRO.
COUNSEL FOR THE
RESPONDENT:
ADV. PCB LUYT.
INSTRUCTED BY:
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC
PROSECUTIONS –
PRETORIA.
REFERENCE:
10/2/5/1/3-VB5/2021.
[1]
In
terms of
s 52(1)
of the
Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997
.
[2]
He
was asked –“
U
moet toegee dat die derde skoot binne in die kamer afgevuur is?”
and
answered “
Ja”.
The
translation of the question is – “
You
must concede that the third shot was fired from within the bedroom?”
and
the answer – “
Yes.”
[3]
1965
(2) SA 612
(A) at 615A-D.
[4]
“
Hy
was teenwordig op toneel, maar ek het nie met hom gekonsulteer nie.
Ek het nooit met die beskuldige gekonsutleer nie
as ek ‘n
instruksie kry, wil ek nie weet wat beskuldigde se weergawe is nie.
As ek eers ‘n konsultasie met
die advokaat het se ek dit maak
nie saak wat die beskuldigde se weergawe is nie, ek bepaal dit so.”
The
translation is: “
He
was present on scene, but I did not consult with him. I never
consult with the accused when I take my instructions, I
do not want
to know what the accused version is. I first have a
consultation with the advocate but it does not make a difference
what the accused’s version is, I determine it.”
[5]
1939
(AD) 188.
[6]
1950
(1) SA 670
(A) at 679-680.
[7]
S
v Sigwahla
1967
(4) SA 566
(A) at 569H.
[8]
S
v Jaipal
[2005] ZACC 1
;
2005
(1) SACR 215
(CC) at para
[13]
.
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