THE BURDEN OF PROOF IN SOUTH AFRICAN BAIL LAW
Revised from my Post Graduate Diploma in Law Dissertation, UCT (1998), Supervisor: Prof Dirk Van Zyl Smit (Dean) [Unless otherwise indicated, all statutory citations relate to the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977] INTRODUCTION In respect of more serious offences, the legislature placed the onus in bail proceedings squarely on the arrested (s60(11). On the other hand, the implications of the approach adopted in the case law is that, regarding less serious offences, that one should not have regard to an onus and that the proceedings are inquisitorial with no onus on either the state or the arrested. In other words, under no circumstances is the onus on the State (whether the offences with which the arrested would be charged relate to either serious or less serious offences). This is ostensibly an anomaly in a Constitutional Democracy sporting a Bill of Rights granting the right to bail. But their again, this right is accorded the arrested only if the interests of justic...
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