Question
A reader refers Pollex to the Constitutional Court (“the Concourt”) judgment of AK v Minister of Police [2022] ZACC 14 (CC), and 2023 (1) SACR 113 (CC). This is the case in which Ms AK claimed damages (Afrikaans: “skadevergoeding”) from the SAPS in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), in that the SAPS failed to protect Ms AK from harm by not conducting a reasonably effective search to find her, or a reasonably effective investigation thereafter into the crimes committed against her.
Our reader then wants to know about “judicial notice” (Afrikaans: “geregtelike kennisname”).
Answer
This Concourt judgment of AK v Minister of Police was discussed in two parts in Servamus: August 2022 and September 2022 respectively, under the heading, “Did the police fail in their duty to find a victim of gender-based violence?”
The said judgment consists of three separate judgments, 111 pages and 287 paragraphs. The first judgment (which is the majority judgment) stretches from paragraphs [1] to [129] and was delivered by six of the presiding Concourt judges. The second judgment (which is the concurring judgment [Afrikaans: “instemmende uitspraak”]) stretches from paragraphs [130] to [148] and was delivered by two of the presiding Concourt judges. These two judges supra concurred with the majority judgment and are included in the six judges referred to supra.
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This is only an extract of an article that is published in Servamus: September 2023. This article is available for purchase.]