National Assembly Cape Town: Thursday, 20 September 2007  

The IFP welcomes this bill, as we have long been concerned about the delays and other negative aspects caused by having a person convicted in a regional court transferred to a High Court for sentencing in terms of the 1997 Act. 

This matter has repeatedly been brought to our attention by senior members of the judiciary and we therefore welcome the action taken by the department to repeal the relevant provisions. This should end the delays of having to transfer cases to the high courts and should, in our opinion, lead to quicker finalisation of serious cases. 

As a consequence, we also welcome the provision made in this bill for regional courts to hand down life sentences and the introduction of an automatic right of appeal in such cases.  

We would however have liked to see that the automatic right of appeal also be extended to cases where the regional courts impose direct prison terms and not just life sentences. 

Madame Speaker, 

The question of "substantial and compelling circumstances" to be considered by the judiciary in altering the prescribed minimum sentences remain a vexed problem. The IFP has never been in favour of such prescriptions as they potentially impinge on the discretion of judicial officers. 

However, we accept that the Constitutional Court found these prescriptions to be constitutionally valid. 

We remain concerned at the necessity to identify "substantial and compelling circumstances" in the law as the courts have the guidelines provided in the case S v Shongwe 1999 where the court found that substantial and compelling circumstances constitute: "if the imposition of the statutorily prescribed sentence would lead to shocking injustice to the accused". The courts only have to apply this test in our opinion. 

The IFP also welcomes the new provision that a court may take into account the period an accused spent as an awaiting-trialist when deciding on a sentence. We would however have liked this provision to be compulsory. 

The bill also inserts two further grounds for murder. In this instance, we would have liked to see a third ground, namely murders committed against the farming community also included. 

The IFP will support the bill.

Thank you