IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
(CAPE OF GOOD HOPE PROVINCIAL DIVISION)

In the matter between:

and

JUDGMENT 
(Appeal against Sentence)

BINNS-WARD, AJ

tn this matter the Appellant was convicted of contravening section 319(3) of the old Criminal Procedure Act, Act 56 of 1955; that is of making contradictory statements on two occasions on oath. The appellant had apparently made allegations on oath against her husband in the context of a family violence matter, and when that matter came to court confirmed those allegations on oath, and thereafter, when called back into the witness box, somewhat curiously to testify on behalf of her husband, retracted those allegations, confessed that they were untrue and indicated that they had been made in the circumstances of a family feud between her family and her husband.

The magistrate imposed a sentence of 12 months imprisonment in terms of Section 276(1)(i) of the Criminal Code and it is against that sentence that the appellant, with the leave of the trial Court, comes on appeal.

In the current case the Magistrate was informed in stark terms that the family feud, to which I referred earlier, had influenced the making of the contradictory statements under oath, but he undertook no investigation to obtain clarity in that regard. In my judgment, particularly having regard to the authority to which I have just referred, his approach was misdirected.

I agree, and it is so ordered.

CLEAVER, J