Deputy Speaker, when a High Court refuses to grant applications for condonation or leave to appeal, the Criminal Procedure Act permits an accused to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal to consider and grant or refuse such an application. However, the Criminal Procedure Act also requires that the entire record of the proceedings in the High Court must be placed before the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal for its consideration of that application.
In practice, however, the requirement that the entire record of proceedings in High Court is to be made available in every case where an application has been refused, causes delays resulting in an appellant having to wait an inordinately long time for that matter to be decided.
Moreover, there are associated problems should the appellant be detained in prison or have been deprived of bail without justification for longer than necessary.
The Bill before this House proposes amendments to section 316, subsections 10 and 12 of the Criminal Procedure Act, Act 15 of 1977. These subsections regulate these matters.
In its consideration of the amending Bill, the portfolio committee advertised for written submissions, but only received two such submissions, neither of which indicated an interest in participation in public hearings.
During its deliberations on this Bill, the portfolio committee invited judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal to make a contribution because these are matters that directly affect them in their work.
On 13 November 2012, the portfolio committee met with and engaged with Justice Nugent and Justice Cachalia of the Supreme Court of Appeal, as well as representatives of Legal Aid SA. Before finalising its deliberations, the portfolio committee invited the National Prosecuting Authority, Legal Aid SA and the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal to make a final comment on the final draft of this Bill. The portfolio committee received no comments from these bodies and persons, which we viewed as being no objection to the Bill. Consequently, the portfolio committee unanimously approved the Bill and we recommend it to this House. Thank you. [Applause.]
There was no debate.
Bill read a second time.