About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

1828. Criminal Procedure Act No 40

This together with the EVIDENCE ACT of 1830 introduced criminal laws "which were substantially modelled on those of the English system" (Dugard 1978: 253). Due to these, the "South African [legal] system is substantially accusatorial in nature, although there are strong inquisitorial elements" (Dugard 1978: 268). "The English system introduced at the Cape ... was adopted by Natal, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic [» Transvaal]. At the time of Union all the colonies of southern Africa accepted the English adversary system and in 1917 these pre-Union statutory codes were drawn together in the CRIMINAL PROCEDURE & EVIDENCE ACT. This statute, and amendments to it, were consolidated in the CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT, 56 of 1955, which was built firmly on accusatorial foundations" (Dugard 1978: 268).

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.