Section 304(4) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 (“the CPA”) provides as follows:

“304. Procedure on review

(4) If in any criminal case in which a magistrate’s court has imposed a sentence which is not subject to review in the ordinary course in terms of section 302 or in which a regional court has imposed any sentence, it is brought to the notice of the provincial or local division having jurisdiction or any judge thereof that the proceedings in which the sentence was imposed were not in accordance with justice, such court or judge shall have the same powers in respect of such proceedings as if the record thereof had been laid before such court or judge in terms of section 303 or this section.”

Section 276(1)(h) and 276 (1)(i) of the CPA provides as follows:

“276 Nature of punishments

(1) Subject to the provisions of this [CPA] Act and any other law and of the common law, the following sentences may be passed upon a person convicted of an offence, namely -

(a) to (g)…

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[This is only an extract of an article published in Pollex in Servamus: June 2022. If you are interested in reading the rest of the article, send an e-mail to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to find out what you need to do. Ed.]