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.