South African criminal procedure

Criminal procedure in South Africa refers to the adjudication process of that country's criminal law. It forms part of procedural or adjectival law, and describes the means by which its substantive counterpart, South African criminal law, is applied. It has its basis mainly in English law.

When the British occupied the Cape permanently in 1806, they retained the Roman-Dutch legal system. They concluded, however, that the criminal justice system was archaic, and so introduced one based on their own in 1828. It has been developed over the years to suit local conditions.

The South African system today is basically accusatorial: that is, the state accuses and the accused defends. The accusation and its proof are state-driven, with a state-appointed prosecuting authority.

The sources of South African criminal procedure lie in the Constitution, the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA), other statute law (for example, the Magistrates' Courts Act, the Supreme Court Act and the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act) and the common law. Criminal procedure overlaps with other branches of the law, like the law of evidence and the substantive law.

Criminal procedure can be divided into three stages or phrases, namely pre-trial, trial and post-trial. These divisions are not absolutely watertight.

The Child Justice Act, in operation since April 2010, has introduced numerous changes to criminal procedure insofar as it affects minors (persons under the age of eighteen). It involves a two-stage trial procedure in a special child justice court.

The CPA lists four methods of securing the attendance of an accused person in court. These bear an important relationship to the constitutional rights of freedom and security of the person, of freedom of movement and residence, of access to the courts and of "arrested, detained and accused persons." The methods are as follows:

The basic principle of South African criminal procedure is that of access to courts, in accordance with section 34 of the Constitution. There is no general provision for trial in absentia.

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