Northern Local Division - 2024

Contract – Claim for damages arising from alleged breach of verbal agreement.            

Criminal Procedure – Bail – Appeal against the magistrate’s refusal to grant bail – Section 65(4) Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 – Appellate court must not set aside decision of lower court unless satisfied that decision was clearly wrong – Court found that it is not in the interest of the public and the administration of justice for the appellant to be granted bail – No misdirection found in the exercise of the magistrate’s discretion. 

Criminal Procedure – Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm – Magistrate misdirected himself by failing to ask accused questions pertaining to the intention at the time of assaulting the complainant – Procedure followed riddled with irregularities and the accused has already served his sentence – No need to remit the matter – The conviction and sentence set aside.

Criminal Procedure – Sentence – Murder (dolus directus) – Sentencing principles – Unequivocal admissions made by the accused.

Criminal Law – Murder – domestic relationship – requirements for private defence – private defence rejected – convicted on Murder (dolus directus).

Law of Delict – Motor vehicle collision – Parties alleging negligence – Onus on each party to prove what it alleges. 

Criminal Law – Murder – Requirements for private defence restated and applied.

Criminal Law – Murder – read with Combating of Domestic Violence Act 4 of 2003 – Circumstantial evidence – Accused pleaded not guilty – Defence of non-pathological insanity rejected.

Applications and motions – Application to stop the respondent from building on the first applicant’s unit.

Criminal law – Rape (c/s 2(1)(a) of Act 8 of 2000) – Three charges of rape (read with the provisions of Act 4 of 2003) – Contradictions between written statements and oral evidence – Medical evidence not supporting the version of the victim  – Offences of rape not proved.

Practice – Applications and motions – Rei vindicatio – Applicant seeking return of motor vehicle in possession of lender.

Criminal procedure – Sentence – Murder – Dolus Eventualis – Offence committed in a domestic context – Prevalence of such offences – Private defence – Accused exceeded the bounds of self-defence by using excessive force and a deadly weapon to inflict a multitude of fatal injuries - Custodial sentence appropriate.

Criminal Procedure - Notice of appeal filed out of time- Condonation- Detailed explanations given reasonable and acceptable-Parties allowed to address the court on prospects of success.

Appeal against sentence- mandatory prescribed sentence under the Combating of Rape Act 8 of 2000 imposed - Absence of substantial and compelling circumstances-granting the court the jurisdiction to impose a prescribed sentence-- Trial court found no substantial and compelling circumstances -Appeal court can interfere with the sentence where the trial court had materially misdirected itself on the facts or the law or committed an irregularity, or where the sentence imposed was startlingly inappropriate or induced a sense of shock or was such that a striking disparity exists between the sentence imposed by the trial court and that which the court of appeal.

Criminal Law - Criminal Procedure – Sentence – Murder (dolus eventualis) - Combating of Domestic Violence Act 4 of 2003.

Criminal Law - Criminal Procedure – Sentence – Murder (dolus eventualis) - Combating of Domestic Violence Act 4 of 2003 – Offences under the Arms and Ammunition Act 7 of 1996.

Labour Law – Opposed Labour Appeal – Section 27(3)(b) of Local Authorities Act, 1992 (the Act) – Renewal of statutory five year fixed term employment contract – Legal implications of non-compliance with s 27(3)(b) of the Act.  

Criminal Procedure – Murder - Read with the Combating of Domestic Violence Act 4 of 2003 - Accused pleaded not guilty to both counts of Murder – Accused convicted as charged.

Criminal Procedure-Application for leave to appeal in terms of section 316(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977- Reasonable prospect of success means the Judge dealing with an application for leave to appeal must be satisfied that, on the facts or conclusions of law involved, the Court of Appeal may take a different view and come to a different conclusion.

Criminal Procedure-Application for leave to appeal in terms of section 316(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977-The trial judge, hearing the application must disabuse his mind of the fact that he himself has no reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused: he must ask himself whether there is a reasonable prospect that the judges of appeal will take a different view.

Contract – Breach of agreement – Damages allegedly sustained as a result of the Defendant’s unlawful repudiation of the agreement.

Criminal Law – Murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act 4 of 2003 – Evidence – Circumstantial evidence – Spontaneous admissions made by the accused.

Contract – Breach of lease agreement – Damages allegedly sustained as a consequence of the defendant’s failure to give a notice of termination of the agreement, compliant with the express terms of the agreement, as well as the defendant’s failure to return the property to the plaintiff in a good, clean and tidy condition, with the exception of fair wear and tear. Contract – Breach of lease agreement – Damages allegedly sustained as a consequence of the defendant’s failure to give a notice of termination of the agreement, compliant with the express terms of the agreement, as well as the defendant’s failure to return the property to the plaintiff in a good, clean and tidy condition, with the exception of fair wear and tear.