Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1997

Section 1 of the act established the procedure for replacing death sentences. For people sentenced to death and whose appeals were exhausted, the Minister of Justice was required to refer each case back to the court which had imposed the death sentence, to be heard by the judge who had imposed the sentence, if possible, or by another judge of that court. The judge would then receive written argument from the prosecuting authority and from the convict, and determine an appropriate sentence. The President would then exercise the power of commutation to set aside the death sentence and replace it by the sentence determined by the court. In cases where an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal was pending, and that appeal was against the sentence only, the case was to be referred back to the original court for a new sentence to be imposed. In cases where an appeal against the conviction was pending, the Supreme Court of Appeal was required to impose a new sentence when it ruled on the appeal.

The act repealed sections 276(1)(a), 277, 278 and 279 of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA), which made the death sentence a valid sentence for certain offences and established the procedure for carrying it out. It also amended other sections of the CPA and various other acts which referred to the death sentence or to capital offences. It made similar amendments to the Defence Act to abolish capital punishment in the military justice system. A schedule to the act contained similar amendments to laws of the formerly independent bantustans, which remained in force for their territories.

Sections 51 to 53 of the act provided for certain minimum sentences to be required for certain serious crimes. These mandatory sentencing provisions were initially to have effect only for two years, subject to extension by Presidential proclamation. Such extensions were repeatedly made to keep the provisions in force until 2007, when the Criminal Law (Sentencing) Amendment Act, 2007 made them permanent. The act prescribes life imprisonment for certain convictions of murder or rape; subsequent amendments added certain terrorism-related crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and human trafficking. Various lesser minimum sentences are prescribed for other crimes, including 15 years for a first conviction of murder, 20 years for a second conviction, and 25 years for any third or subsequent conviction.