Recent Case: Specific crimes

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Pages: 373-380
• Date: 24 May 2019
• Citation: (2002) 15 SACJ 373
• Published date: 24 May 2019
• Author: Ronald Louw

RECENT CASES • VONNISSE

Specific Crimes

RONALD LOUW

University of Natal, Durban

In

S v Bresler

2002 (2) SACR 18 (C) the accused and his 18-year-old daughter

were charged with contempt of court in that they had made certain racist and

derogatory remarks about the judiciary and the administration of justice in

various court documents over a period of two years. The accused's daughter

had been convicted and fined for exceeding the road traffic speed limit by

magistrate Mr NJ Koeries, a 'coloured' magistrate in the Bellville magistrate's

court. She had stated in her defence that it was late at night and that her

father had warned her to be aware of being followed by 'black people'. She

thought that she was being followed and so she tried to escape by speeding

away. At the time she was stopped by the traffic officers, she did not tell them

that she was trying to escape from the other vehicle she believed was in

pursuit of her (at 22f-i). From then on, over a period of two years, under the

direction, or more probably the control, of her father, the daughter lodged an

appeal in which she filed several affidavits and wrote several letters. It was

conceded by the father that he had written all the documents and had his

daughter sign blank pages before he drafted the documents. The daughter

was accordingly acquitted, but not without the following stern warning by

Satchwell J (at 23i-24a):

`You allowed your name to be used and you permitted your signature to adorn a

document written under your name. You further participated in this process by

attending at the magistrate's court and asking for leave to appeal and you appeared

in the High Court to argue that appeal. Your carelessness or timidity in the face of

your father's intransigence has cost you dearly in time, possibly in anxiety, certainly

now in humiliation and it could cost you a lot more. Your name has been

associated with a racist attack on an individual, on judicial officers generally, on the

administration of justice and on the very foundation of our democracy.'

In summary, the documents and letters referred to such notions as

Africanised bush law, insane verdicts, anarchy in the new African

democracy, incompetence and lack of objectivity with regard to members

373

(2002) 15 SACJ 373

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