By Brig Dirk Lambrechts
Photos/images courtesy of Freepik
Question
South Africans have become used to hearing the term “contempt of court” (in Afrikaans: “minagting van die hof”) in news reports. Including, because a well-known politician was accused and recently convicted and sentenced to direct incarceration by a Magistrates’ Court. On his way out of the court, this accused person, who is a black man, allegedly made abusive and/or racist and/or ugly and/or nasty comments about the magistrate concerned who is a white female person. The said accused person was granted leave to appeal, which meant that he was NOT incarcerated forthwith. Accordingly, Pollex was asked, inter alia, whether the accused person concerned may be charged with the common law offence of “contempt of court”?
Answer
Definition
On p281 of Snyman’s Criminal Law, seventh edition as published by LexisNexis, Snyman defines “contempt of court” as follows:
“Contempt of court consists in unlawfully and intentionally
**************************
[This is only an extract of an article published in Servamus: July 2026. This article is available for purchase.]