Two judges of the High Court in Cape Town unanimously suggest that certain SAPS members receive training on how to handle “gender-based violence offences”
The following discussion is about “monstrous” (in Afrikaans: “monsteragtige/afgryslike/ verskriklike”) “gender-based violence offences” committed by a husband against his wife. See paragraph [67] of the judgment.
Introduction
On 21 September 2022, Mr C v d M (hereinafter referred to as “the accused”) pleaded guilty before the regional court of Bellville, in the northern suburbs of Cape Town (“the trial court”), on one count of attempted murder, and not guilty to three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. Regarding all five counts supra, which occurred on 13 October 2019 in Belhar in the Cape Peninsula, the accused’s wife (hereinafter referred to as the “complainant”) was the victim. On 1 November 2022, the accused was convicted on all five counts supra.
On 15 November 2022, the trial court sentenced the accused to 15 years’ direct incarceration for the attempted murder (count 1) and incarceration for life for the rape and sexual assault (counts 2 to 5). The trial court took the convictions together for sentencing. As the sentence of incarceration for life falls within the ambit of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997 (also referred to as the “Minimum Sentences Act”), the accused enjoyed an automatic right to appeal.
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[This is only an extract of an article published in Servamus: December 2025. This article is available for purchase.]