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Table of Contents
Last changed: June 09, 2002
Copyright © 2002 by Toffie van Vuuren
vvuurjwj@unisa.ac.za
Senior Lecturer
Department of Criminology
University of South Africa
The following information is hereby re-published with kind permission, and also appears
on the web pages http://www.crimevictims.co.za/YourRights.htm and http://www.wierdabridge.co.za/citizen.html:
What are My Rights as a Lawful Citizen?
The Constitution guarantees my right to life, freedom of movement, speech, association etc. as long as my rights do not
infringe on the rights of another individual or the State. If someone infringed on my rights, I can demand the police to intervene. If there
is not sufficient time to notify the police, I can sometimes, within the limits of the law, act
to defend myself against the perpetrator who endangers my life or my property.
The Criminal Procedure Act (sec 42) gives private persons the right to arrest someone, without a warrant, in the following circumstances:
Any person who commits or attempts to commit in his presence or whom he reasonably suspects of having committed a First Schedule offence
(that is serious offences like murder, rape, robbery, etc.)
Any person whom he reasonably believes to have committed any offence and to be escaping from and to be hotly pursued by a person whom
such private person reasonably believes to have authority to arrest that person for the offence;
Any person whom he sees engaged in an affray;
The Lawful Occupier / owner or person in charge of property or premises may also arrest a person, on behalf of the owner, who
contravened certain offences with reference to the arms and ammunition and the drug trafficking act. Other examples of statutory
provisions conferring special powers of arrest on private persons are the National Parks Act and the Civil Aviation Offences Act.
In the event of resistance to the arrest of a suspect for the contravention of a First Schedule offence, the private person may
use the necessary force, which should enable him/her to effect the arrest. There is however limitations (strict rules), which
have to be complied with before an alleged offender may be stopped in such a way.
Before the amendment to sec 49 of the CPA, the arrestor could have used maximum force to overcome resistance to the arrest.
That includes the killing of the accused, which, if the killing of an alleged suspect complied with the requirements set out in
the Criminal procedure Act, could be considered as justifiable homicide. The way in which the law has now been changed means in
effect that not only a private person, but even police officials, may only use force to effect the arrest if that force is
immediately necessary for the purposes of protecting the arrestor, any person lawfully assisting the arrestor or any other
person from imminent or future death or grievous bodily harm;
The same applies if the suspect attempts to flee in order to escape the lawful arrest. Maximum force can only be used if
"there is a substantial risk that the suspect will cause imminent or future death or grievous bodily harm if the arrest
is delayed; or that the offence for which the arrest is sought is in progress and is of a forcible and serious nature and
involves the use of life-threatening violence or a strong likelihood that it will cause grievous bodily harm".
The way I interpret this means in fact that if you witnessed someone killing, raping or robbing your wife and that person
runs away, you are not allowed to use maximum force to stop that person - unless you can proof that there is a substantial
risk that the suspect will cause imminent or future death or grievous bodily harm if the arrest (or the stopping of the
person) is delayed. Which will not be so easy to prove.
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GridWatch is a system where pre-recorded distress
voice messages may be sent simultaneously to voice communication devices of various neighbours and others.
The following was submitted by one of GridWatch's
liaison persons and briefly explains how the system works:
- GridWatch uses pre-recorded voice messages and
not SMS. The problem with SMS is that it is prone to delay and needs the recipient to view the message. Our service uses a
live call to play the pre-recorded distress message to the subscribers' nominated recipients. For example "This is
Colin Melling, [street address], I am at home at need your help". This message is replayed to the recipient twice for
purposes of clarity. This message would be played to all 5 recipients simultaneously within 2-3 seconds of activation. If a
recipient fails to answer the call, our server will continue to call for 5 minutes. The recipients would be people who know
me, people who are close, and people who can render effective help. One or two of the recipients may be security services
or Policing units, who can obviously provide far more effective, reactive help, if they are made aware of crime situation
within seconds of it potentially happening.
- Each subscriber is given 3 activation numbers and therefore 3 different voice message facilities
signifying 3 different locations. These are generally configured to represent Home, Work and a general location, which
could be configured to accommodate for a person being in transit. In this regard, we have concluded agreements with Matrix
and now NetStar, and both of these companies will treat the voice message as if the client had phoned in to report his
vehicle stolen. They will then guide the other four recipients to the vehicle pin-pointing it's location second by second.
All of these facilities can be timer activated, giving a subscriber even greater security.
- [The] promotional video goes a long way to explain the mechanics of the system.
Thanks again for your interest, please keep in touch.
Regards,
Colin Melling
GridWatch
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