GARCES V FOUCHE AND OTHERS

1098 1998 (9) BCLR 1098 (Nm)

GARCES v FOUCHE AND OThERS
1998 (9) BCLR 1098 (Nm) 1099
A

ppplications to be brought before the compulsory first appearance of an arrested person A ~ the
Garces v Fouche and Others magistrate’s court, that article 11(3) of the Namibian constitution was not appli~ble to bail
High Court, Namibia applications, that to compel a public prosecutor to attend to bail applications Outside normal
B Judgment date: 21/11/1997 Case No: A 140/97 hours would be in conflict with the labour laws, and that practical and ~iancial problems made it
impracticable to have public prosecutors working outside ~ormal hours.
Before: GJC Strydom, Judge-President; NR Hannah and ~Mtic1e 11(1) of the Namibian constitution provides that “no persons shall be subject B ~
SV Mtambanengwe, Judges arbitrary arrest or detention”. Article 11(3) provides that “all persons who are arrested
I~id detained in custody shall be brought before the nearest magistrate or other judicial bølcer
within a period of forty-eight hours of their arrest or, if this is not reasonably possible, as soon as
possible thereafter, and no such persons shall be detained in custody

C ~oyond such period without the authority of a magistrate or other judicial officer”. C
tion 50(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 provides that “a person arrested
be detained for a period not exceeding forty-eight hours unless he is it before a
Arrest right not to he subject to arbitrary arrest or detention article 11 of the
— —
lower court and his further detention ... is ordered by the court”. A
amibian constitution requirement that an arrested person be brought before a
— viso to section 5 0(1) details circumstances in which the forty-eight hour period may
judicial officer within a period offorly-eight hours of arrest article
— ~xtended.

D 11(3) of the amibian constitution article 11(3) was intended to operate for the
— t was argued on behalf of the Respondents that the detention of an accused period D
benefit of arrested persons and not for the benefit of the State, and does not confer a ~g the forty-eight hour period following arrest was expressly authorised by section
right on the State to detain for a minimum of forty-eight hours the provisions of the
—
) of the Criminal Procedure Act. No provision existed which enabled a court to ermine
Criminal Procedure Act dealing with arrest and bail have to be construed in that a shorter period within which the accused had to be brought before a court for “-“~~e
light an arrested person is entitled to bring a bail application on his own initiative
—
of a bail application. If a court could not order that an arrested person be
~ht before it within the forty-eight hours, there remained no other means in law by
within the forty-hour period, and where circumstances that person could himself or herself as of right approach the court to issue such an
E of urgency exist, to bring such application outside normal court hours. ~r so as to enable the person to apply for bail. There was no mechanism in the law by
Criminal procedure bail application article 11(3) of the amibian constitution
— — —
of which an accused facing criminal charges could bring himself or herself before court. It
requiring that an arrested person be brought before a judicial officer within a was the State which was dominus litis, and which brought the accused before court.
period of forty-eight hours of arrest was intended to operate for the benefit of
arrested persons and not for the benefit of the State, and does not ~The Court dismissed this argument. Section 5 0(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act dealt F the
maximum time that might expire prior to appearance before court. It did not lay
F confer a right on the State to detain for a minimum of forty-eight hours the —

provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act dealing with arrest and bail have to be a minimum time that must expire before a bail application could be brought. The visions of
construed in that light an arrested person is entitled to bring a bail application on
— the Criminal Procedure Act relating to arrest and bail had to be read in the t of article 11 of
his own initiative within the forty-eight hour period a formal bail application may
— the Namibian constitution. The latter was intended to operate solely the benefit of arrested
be heard by a magistrate without a public prosecutor being persons and not for the benefit of the State. Article 11(3) did
G present a bail application may also be brought outside normal court hours where
— confer a right on the State to detain a person for forty-eight hours at its whim if it G
circumstances of urgency exist whether such circumstances exist is to be decided
— reasonably practical to bring that person before a court at an earlier point in time.
on a case by case basis. arrested person was accordingly entitled to bring a bail application within the forty-hour
period. It was important to realise that the liberty of the individual was at
e. Furthermore, nothing in the Criminal Procedure Act restricted the hearing of bail lications
Editor’s Summary to normal court hours. Justice dictated that in appropriate cases an arrested
on should have a right to apply for ball outside normal hours. As to the argument H t the
H prosecuting authority could not legally compel a prosecutor to perform overtime
Applicant, a person with a medical condition aggravated by stress and by cold and damp Work without an agreement, it was in any event not necessary that there should be a secutor in
conditions, was arrested after hours. Attempts made to arrange for an after hours bail hearing attendance at a bail application. It was not the prosecutor that convened the rt but the
failed. Although the local magistrate had indicated his willingness to hear a bail application, it magistrate. This was the effect of section 12(1) of the Magistrates Courts
did not prove possible to obtain the attendance of a public prosecutor. It emerged that the ~t 32 of 1944. Clearly, before a magistrate heard a bail application, he or she should
Prosecutor-General had instructed public prosecutors that they did not give the prosecuting authority an opportunity to participate in the proceedings. Where I
I have to “entertain bail applications after normal court hours”. An urgent application brought prosecuting authority failed to avail itself of the opportunity because its officials felt
in the High Court resulted in the issue of a rule nisi calling upon Respondents to show cause disinclined to work after normal hours, the judicial officer could proceed in the absence
why they should not be ordered to “immediately convene a court ... and entertain the bail a representative of the prosecuting authority. The Court considered that it should
application by the Applicant”. As a consequence, Applicant was released on bail shortly after hasise that the hearing of bail applications outside normal court hours should occur
the issue of the rule nisi. y where real grounds for urgency existed. Whether there were such grounds would be decided
on a case by case basis.
On the return day Fourth Respondent, the Prosecutor-General, opposed the confirmaJ tion
of the rule, contending that the relevant legislation did not permit voluntary bail
 GARCES v FOUCHE AND OThERS
1100 1998 (9) BCLR 1098 (Nm)
A As to the rule nisi, the relief had been sought against the wrong persons. It was not the
prosecutors who needed to be ordered to convene a court. Prosecutors did not convene a
court; the presiding officer did. Accordingly, the rule was discharged with no order as to
costs.
B Judgment
Hannah J: This case raises the question whether an arrested person has a right to
apply for bail during the forty-eight hour period following his arrest and, if he has,
whether his application, if urgent, must be heard outside normal court
C hours. The case comes before us in the following way.
On 22nd May, 1997 at about 5 pm the applicant was arrested by police at Walvis
Bay on suspicion of receiving or being in possession of stolen fishing equipment
worth approximately N$4000,00. The applicant, who is forty-eight years of age, is
the managing director of a fishing company and suffers from
D two ailments. He has a skin disease which is aggravated by stress and kidney stones
which require him to avoid cold and damp conditions. An attempt by a colleague to
arrange for the police to bail the applicant was unsuccessful as was an attempt made
by an attorney. The attorney then contacted a local magistrate who indicated his
willingness to hear a bail application. However, it would appear that the magistrate
was of the view that for such a hearing to take place it
E was essential for a public prosecutor to be in attendance. Attempts were then made by
the applicant’s attorney to obtain the attendance of a public prosecutor but without
success. The position is that public prosecutors have been instructed by the
Prosecutor-General that they do not have to entertain bail applications after normal
court hours. It is left to their discretion whether they do so or not.
F And so we see in the affidavit of one of the public prosecutors who was approached
that evening the statement that he will only attend an after hours bail application if
he is convinced that good reasons for urgency exist such as illness.
Failing in his bid to obtain the attendance of a public prosecutor at a bail
application hearing the applicant’s attorney then arranged for an urgent applicaG tion to
be brought in the High Court. This application was heard late in the
evening and a rule was issued calling upon the respondents to show cause why, inter
alia,
1. First, Second and Third Respondents should not be ordered to immediately convene a
court to be held at the Magistrate’s Court, Walvis Bay;
H 2. First, Second and Third Respondents should not be ordered as soon as a court is
convened to entertain the bail application by the applicant.
The orders were made to operate as interim interdicts with immediate effect and the
result was that at some time after midnight a court was convened at Walvis Bay and
the applicant was released on bail of N$5000,00. The applicant now
I seeks confirmation of the rule while the respondents seek its discharge.
In his answering affidavit the Prosecutor-General opposes the confirmation of the
rule on the following grounds:
(1) The relevant legislation does not permit voluntary bail applications to be
brought before the compulsory first appearance of an arrested person in the
J magistrate’s court;
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GARCES v FOUCHE AND OThERS
IW~NAH 1998(9)BCLR1O98(Nm) 1101
(2) article 11(3) of the Constitution is not applicable to bail applications; A
(3) to compel a public prosecutor to attend to bail applications after hours
;. would be in conflict with the Labour Act 6 of 1992; and
(4) certain practical and fmancial problems make it impracticable to have
- public prosecutors working outside normal hours. B
Uowever, before considering these grounds of opposition I will first address the jiestion
whether the relief sought by the applicant was the correct relief.
The relief sought was based on the supposition either that public prosecutors
:.~,nvene lower courts or that a lower court cannot be convened for the hearing of a
criminal matter without the presence of a public prosecutor. Mr Frank, who C ~,peared
for the applicant with Miss Vivier, was asked at the outset of the
hearing whether this could possible be so and he conceded that it could not. In ~is
submission public prosecutors do not convene the courts in which they appear and a
court may be held whether a public prosecutor appears or not. The
• effect of Mr Frank’s concession is, of course, rather disastrous for the applicant’s case
because, if it was correctly made, it means that the wrong relief was D ~sought. What
should have been sought was an order against the magistrate
ing hun to hold a court regardless of whether a public prosecutor attended. ~
sought to overcome this difficulty by seeking to amend the relief
- it by substituting “attend” for “convene” in prayer 1 and “attend” for ~
ritertain” in prayer 2 but this does not meet the problem that the relief is E
hi against the prosecutors and not the magistrate.
~ owever, the Attorney-General and Mr Miller, who appeared for the
respondid not accept that the concession by Mr Frank was correctly made.
Their was that for a magistrate’s court to convene in a criminal matter a prose .~
r must be present though they were unable to point to any statutory F
)viSiOn which requires this to be so. Mr Miller did refer the Court to section 5
.~ (‘rirninal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 which permits a presiding officer to
~ point a competent person to conduct a prosecution if there is no public
prose-
p “~r but I do not consider that that provision provides an answer to the
;c~ estion. Obviously, if there is no prosecutor present at a criminal trial to put
G
~tI charge to an accused and present the prosecution case no trial can take
place ai d section 5 is concerned with that situation. It by no means follows
that
cause there is no prosecutor present when an application for bail is brought a
magistrate cannot sit and enquire into the matter.
The answer to the question under consideration is to be found, I think, in the H
Magistrate’s Courts Act 32 of 1944. Section 12(1) of that Act provides:
“(I) A magistrate —
(a) may hold a court, provided that a court of a regional division may only be
held by a magistrate of the regional division.
(b) shall possess the powers and perform the duties conferred or imposed upon
magistrates by any law for the time being in force
There is nothing in the subsection limiting the right of a magistrate to hold a court
although as a matter of fairness and justice a magistrate, having decided to ~old a court,
would obviously give the State the opportunity to have a public prosecutor present. And
in a situation such as we are dealing with in the present
case, if the public prosecutor refuses to avail himself of that opportunity the J

GARCES v FOUCHE AND OThERS
1102 1998 (9) BCLR 1098 (Nm)
A magistrate, again as a matter of faimess and justice, would no doubt seek to inform
himself about the case by calling on the investigating or arresting officer to provide
all necessary information. In fact in England during the 1960’s and 1970’s (I do not
know the current practice) bail applications were dealt with in this very way as a
matter of routine. No one would appear on behalf of the
B State. The arresting or investigating officer would go into the witness box and state
whether bail was objected to or not. If it was then reasons would be given. I can see
nothing objectionable to this happening in this country should the need arise. It
follows from the foregoing that I am of the view that the concession made by Mr
Frank was correctly made and, as the wrong relief was sought, the
C rule must be discharged.
Considerable argument was devoted by counsel to the four grounds of opposition
to the application set out in the Prosecutor-General’s answering affidavit and as it is
important that these matters be determined I shall deal with them. The first two
grounds can be dealt with together.
D Article 11 of the Constitution provides:
“(1) No person shall be subject to arbitrary arrest or detention.
(2) No persons who are arrested shall be detained in custody without being
informed promptly in language they understand of the grounds for such
arrest.
(3) All persons who are arrested and detained in custody shall be brought
before the E nearest Magistrate or other judicial officer within a period of forty-eight
(48)
hours of their arrest or, if this is not reasonably possible, as soon as possible
thereafter, and no such persons shall be detained in custody beyond such
period without the authority of a Magistrate or other judicial officer.”
The article sets out rights conferred on, and enjoyed by, every person who is F
subject to arrest and the article, in my view, clearly fmds its place in the Consti-
tution solely for the benefit of such persons and not for the benefit of the State.
Article 11(3) does not, in my view, confer a right on the State to detain a person in
custody for 48 hours at its whim if it is reasonably practical to bring that person
before a magistrate at an earlier point in time. Section 50(1) of the Criminal
Procedure Act, to which I now turn, and other provisions in the Act
G dealing with bail must be read in the light of the foregoing.
Section 50(1) provides:
“(1) A person arrested with or without warrant shall as soon as possible be
brought to a police station or, in the case of an arrest by warrant, to any
other place which is expressly mentioned in the warrant, and, if not released
by reason that
H no charge is to be brought against him, be detained for a period not
exceeding forty-eight hours unless he is brought before a lower court and
his further detention, for the purposes of his trial, is ordered by the court
upon a charge of any offence or, if such person was not arrested in respect
of an offence, for the purpose of adjudication upon the cause for his arrest:
Provided that if the period of forty-eight hours expires —“
I It is unnecessary to set out the fairly lengthy proviso which details the circum-
stances in which the forty-eight hour period may be extended.
Section 50(3) provides:
“Nothing in this section shall be construed as modifying the provisions of this
Act or any other law whereby a person under detention may be released on bail or on
warnJ ing or on a written notice to appear in court.”
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1
GARCES v FOUCHE AND OThERS
HANNAH 1998(9)BCLR1O98(Nm) 1103
The argument of the Attorney-General is that the detention of an accused person A
during the forty-eight hour period following his arrest is expressly authorised by section
50(1) and no provision exists, either expressly or by necessary implicajion, which
enables a court to determine a shorter period within which the accused must be brought
before it for the purpose of a bail application or Otherwise. Therefore, if a court cannot
order that an arrested person be brought B j~efore it within the first forty-eight hours of
arrest, there remains no means in law by which that person can himself as of right
approach the court to issue
an order so as to enable him to apply for bail. Put shortly the submission lide on
behalf of the respondents is that there is no mechanism in our law by beans of which an
accused facing criminal proceedings can bring himself before ffie court; his is brought
before the court by the State which is dominis litis. C
With great respect I cannot accept this argument. I agree with Kotze J when ~ said
in Twayie and Another v Minister of Justice and Another 1986 (2) SA
~ (0) at 103 that section 50(1) deals with the maximum time that may expire ~rior to
appearance before a court and not with the minimum time that must ~xpfre prior to an
application for bail being brought. The Attorney-General D ~ submitted that this case
and subsequent cases were wrongly decided because the
overlooked the fact that section 50 does not contemplate an appearance in ~ourt.
Once it is accepted that the detention in terms of section 50 need not ‘flecessarily be
followed by an appearance in court, so the submission goes, it ~$hust likewise be
accepted that an accused cannot demand from the moment of E bis arrest that he be
brought before a court and charged especially when at that
•~age no appearance is contemplated. I fmd this submission not only rather ~ubtle but if
it is nght it gives nse to the absurd situation that a person unfortu~ate enough to be
charged with an offence will be taken before a court where he ~n apply for bail whereas
a person fortunate enough not yet to be charged and F
may never be charged, cannot. The answer to the submission is, in my ~Opinion,
to be found in section 50(3). That subsection makes it clear that the ~~Tovisions of
section 50(1) do not affect the other provisions of the Criminal ~i~rocedure Act
“whereby a person under detention may be released on bail” and, ~,bu my view, the
question whether an accused who is in custody is entitled to bail
~i~fore the forty-eight hour period has elapsed must be answered by reference to G
those other provisions and not by reference to section 50(1). See S v Du Preez ~991 (2)
SACR 372 (Ck). One such provision is contained in section 59(1) which reads:
“(1) (a) An accused who is in custody in respect of any offence, other than an
offence referred to in Part II or Part III of Schedule 2 may, before his first H
appearance in a lower court, be released on bail in respect of such offence
by any police official of or above the rank of non-commissioned officer, if
the accused deposits at a police station the sum of money determined by
such police official.”
It is clear from this provision that, depending on the offence for which an accused is
arrested, he can obtain bail at his own instance prior to the expiration I of the forty-eight
hour period. Indeed, in terms of this provision he can apply for, and may obtain bail,
immediately after his arrest.
Another such provision is contained in section 60(1) which reads:
“(1) An accused who is in custody in respect of any offence may at his first appearance in
a lower court or at any stage after such appearance, apply to such
 1 1
GARCES V FOUCHE AND OThERS GARCES V FOUCHE AND OThERS
1104 1998 (9) BCLR 1098 (Nm) HANNAH 1998 (9) BCLR 1098 (Nm) 1105

A court or, if the proceedings against the accused are pending in a superior court, to
that court, to be released on bail in respect of such offence, and any such court
may, subject to the provisions of section 61, release the accused on bail in respect
of such offence on condition that the accused deposits with the clerk of the
court or the registrar of the court, as the case may be, or with a member of the
prisons service at the prison where the accused is in custody, or with any
B police official at the place where the accused is in custody, the sum of money
determined by the court in question.”
I disagree with the Attorney-General’s submission that this provision is not caught
by the words “the provisions of this Act.., whereby a person under detention may be
released on bail” as contained in section 50(3). The words
C used are very wide and I disagree that they should be construed so as to refer only to
section 59(1). In my view, the legislature realised that there was a danger of an
argument being mounted such as that advanced on behalf of the respondents and
expressly went out of its way in section 50(3) to ensure that nothing in section 50 is
to be construed as modifying the rights of an accused to
D apply for bail. That view is reinforced by my earlier comments concerning article
11(3).
As for section 60 itself I respectfully agree with Kotze J when he said in Twayie
‘s case (supra) at 104J—105D:
“The choice of words was in my view only an unfortunate one to distinguish
cases E mentioned in section 59 from the cases mentioned in section 60. It did not, in
.. .
The Attorney-General submitted that the Prosecutor-General cannot legally A compel a
prosecutor to conclude an agreement for the purpose of overtime work and cannot
legally compel a prosecutor to perform overtime work without an agreement. I agree with
this submission. But, as pointed out earlier in this judgment, a magistrate’s court can be
held without a prosecutor in attendance. If a bail application is so urgent that it needs to be
held outside normal court hours B and the local prosecutor’s concern with justice is so little
that he declines to attend on the ground that his normal working hours are from 08h00
to 05h00 and he is not prepared to work overtime then let justice be done without him.
Let the magistrate seek the assistance of a police officer to inform him of the facts and
circumstances of the case. I cannot envisage a situation where a C judicial officer would
adopt such a stance and I note that in the present case the magistrate was prepared to sit.
I must emphasise, however, that real grounds for urgency must exist before a court
will hear a bail application outside normal court hours. This is a matter which must be
decided by magistrates on a case by case basis. D
For reasons given earlier the applicant sought the relief against the wrong parties and
the rule must, therefore, be discharged. However, the respondents do not seek an order
for costs.
Accordingly, the rule is discharged and no order is made as to costs.
(The other members of the Court concurred in the judgment of Hannah I). E

other words, intend to determine that voluntary bail applications ... could not be brought For the applicant:
prior to a first appearance in a lower court.. The words ‘first appearance’ thus refer
. S Turck instructed by Weder, Kruger and Hartmann, Windhoek
not only to the first compulsory appearance in terms of section 50 but also to a
first appearance at own request. It is not only to more serious offences under sec-
tion 60 but also the minor section 59 cases where police officers refuse to grant bail. It For the respondents:
F will be a nonsense to interpret section 60 in such a manner that one accused is entitled to VRukora and PJMiller instructed by the Attorney-General
bail prior to his first appearance while an identical accused who committed
exactly the same offence must wait for his first compulsory appearance in the lower court
before he can get bail. This conclusion is also supported by section 72 (release on The following cases were referred to in the above judgment:
warning instead of bail) which is not linked to a ‘first appearance’ in a lower court.” S v Du Preez 1991 (2) SACR 372 (Ck) 1103
(Counsels’ translation: and they must take responsibility for grammatical shortG Twayie and Another v Minister of Justice and Another
comings.) My conclusion therefore is that an arrested person is entitled, on his 1986 (2) SA 101(0) 1103
own initiative, to bring a bail application within the forty-eight hour period.
Argument was also presented on the question whether an arrested person is
limited to bringing a bail application only during normal court hours. However,
much of the argument falls away in view of the conclusion I have already
H reached that an arrested person can, on his own initiative, bring a bail application
before the 48-hour period has elapsed. What is of importance, in my view, is that
we are dealing with the liberty of the individual. There is nothing in the Criminal
Procedure Act which limits an arrested person’s right to apply for bail only during
normal court hours and to my mind justice dictates that in an
I appropriate case that person should have a right to apply for bail outside normal hours.
Twayie ‘s case (supra); S v Du Preez (supra). the Attorney-General’s response to this
was to refer to, and rely on, section 32(2) of the Labour Act 6 of 1992 which provides:
“No employer shall require or permit an employee to work overtime otherwise than in
terms of an agreement concluded by him or her with the employer and provided such
J overtime does not exceed three hours on any day or ten hours during any week. .

J J