The Pretoria High Court yesterday declared aspects of the minimum sentences legislation to be unconstitutional.

The law currently provides that young offenders who are 16 or 17 years of age must be sentenced according to the minimum sentences law when they are convicted of very serious crimes, notes a report on the Legalbrief Today site. These sentences include life imprisonment or long sentences such as 20 years in prison. The application to have minimum sentences declared unconstitutional - insofar as they affect children - was brought by the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria. In her judgment, Acting Judge Sulette Potterill declared the offending sections to be unconstitutional because they go against an important constitutional rule - that when it comes to child offenders, imprisonment must be a measure of last resort and for the shortest period of time. Potterill found that the minimum sentencing regime in fact produces the opposite result - that imprisonment becomes a first resort and for the longest period of time. The judgment will be referred to the Constitutional Court for ratification.
Full report on the Legalbrief Today site
See also a Beeld report