Fascinating article by Prof. Balthazar, one of SA’s foremost legal minds. (The image shown is not of him – he chooses to remain anonymous….)
The Stalingrad defence is not taught in law schools and it has a certain charm.
Its application needs only a passing knowledge of the law. Anyone is capable of advancing it with no legal training at all. All one needs is familiarity with a few procedural rules and a little imagination, if one finds oneself on the wrong side of the prosecuting authority.
The ABC of the Stalingrad Defence
The Stalingrad defence is not about succeeding. It’s all about buying time.
- The first rule is that anybody can bring an application to a court once charged with an offence.
- The next step is to formulate an application. This application will probably fail.
- Thirdly, you will then ask the court to allow you to appeal. If that fails, you appeal to the next higher court – up to the ConCourt.
No matter if all that fails — by then you have gained a reprieve of as much as 12 months!
Start all over again….
The true beauty of the Stalingrad defence is that after failure upon failure, it can be started all over again with a new reason why you should not be prosecuted!
Why has the prosecution stalled during all this time?
It stalled only because the prosecutor and the judge allowed it to be stalled.
The law stays an order that has been granted, when there is an appeal.
It does not stay proceedings when an order has been refused.
We need a little backbone on the part of the prosecuting authority and the judges. A little getting on with the job at hand, and that will be the end of the Stalingrad defence.
