Comments: A commentary on the principles underpinning the crime of public violence committed by means of threat of violence

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Published date: 11 September 2019
• Date: 11 September 2019
• Citation: (2019) 32 SACJ 223
• Pages: 223-244
• Author: Khulekani Khumalo

A commentary on the principles

underpinning the crime of public

violence committed by means of

threat of violence

KHULEKANI KHUMALO

University of KwaZulu-Natal

1 Introduction

Public violence is dened as consisting in the unlawful and intentional

commission by a number of people acting in concert of acts of

sufciently serious dimensions t hat are intended to forcibly disturb the

public peace or security or to invade the rights of others (J Burchell

Principles of Criminal Law 5ed (2016) 777. See also SV Hoctor ‘Criminal

Law’ in WA Joubert (3ed) The Law of South Africa vol 11 (2017) para

189). This denition is substantially similar to that which is also

advanced by Snyman (in CR Snyman Criminal Law 6ed (2014) 311).

For a recent commentary on the denition and other aspects of the

crime, see K Khumalo ‘Towards resuscitating the ailing public violence

jurisprudence – lessons from history’ (2017) 30 SACJ 23-37. Itis now

trite that even though the denition of public violence employs the

term ‘forcibly’, violence or threat of violence is still required for the

commission of public violence (S v Mei1982 (1) SA 299 (O) at 302B).

The requirement of violence or threat of violence has been the legal

position from Roman law where it was recognised that the Roman

equivalent of the crime of public violence could be committed by

means of actual violence or conduct that has the tendency to breed

violence (JRL Milton South African Criminal Law and Procedure

vol II: Common Law Crimes 3ed (1996) 77). Roman-Dutch law also

developed along the same lines, with emphasis on the principle that

public violence is committed if the perpetrators use actual violence

or act with the intention of using violence (Milton op cit 78-79). The

current public violence jurisprudence still recognises the same.

The meaning of ‘violence’ for purposes of the crime of public

violence is discussed extensively in K Khumalo ‘The meaning of

COMMENT

223

(2019) 32 SACJ 223

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