Chairperson, the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill seeks to amend section 316(10)(c) and section 316(12) of the Criminal Procedure Act by not requiring the Supreme Court of Appeal to request a record of proceedings if the appeal is against sentence only. It does so by giving the discretion to the Supreme Court of Appeal to decide whether it is in the interests of justice to request a full record or merely a portion of the record, if this was not submitted in terms of section 316(c) and under specified circumstances listed in the proposed section.
Regarding the retrospective application of the Bill, the Bill provides for the amendment to apply retrospectively from September 2010. This will allow for the backlog of 60 cases that was caused by the previous amendment to be considered without delay. The Office of the Chief State Law Adviser has indicated that it has no objection to the Bill's retrospective application.
The Supreme Court of Appeal judges concurred, stating that the effect of retrospectivity will be that the accused will appeal, will know sooner about the outcome of his or her appeal application and the state will be relieved of the burden of unnecessary expenditure relating to the transcribing of records.
Regarding recommendations, the Constitution contains various forms of protection to safeguard the rights of an accused person. The streamlining and speeding-up of the appeals process will assist in giving effect to the rights of an accused to have a fair trial and to have his or her appeal heard as soon as possible thereafter. The Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Development did not propose any amendments to the Bill, and they are satisfied that the concerns that the rights of an accused could be detrimentally affected by the proposed amendment are being adequately addressed.
The Bill allows for judicial discretion by allowing the Supreme Court of Appeal judges to decide whether or not a record of proceedings will be required if this was not submitted in terms of section 316(10) of the Criminal Procedure Act. It is therefore recommended that the Council passes the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill, as adopted by the committee on 12 June 2013.
Debate concluded.
Bill agreed to in accordance with section 75 of the Constitution.