Pretoria - Irresponsible drivers could find themselves facing murder charges if they are in a car accident that results in death, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has warned.
With the Easter holidays around the corner, NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga has sounded the warning to motorists, adding that the NPA would show little mercy over the holiday period.
"With the Easter holidays approaching, we will be more aggressive in our approach to irresponsible drivers because the importance of human life can never be over emphasized. We hope that the public will support our stance as we all have the interests of the road users at heart," he said.
Mhaga noted that there had been some confusion over the NPA's decisions to charge people with murder instead of culpable homicide when death results from car accidents.
"People are accustomed to culpable homicide being the only charge preferred against persons involved in such incidents because motor vehicle collisions are usually considered to be 'accidents' - as people believe that no one sets out to crash his car, resulting in death," he pointed out.
With many questioning the rationale and sustainability of this "aggressive stance", Mhaga explained that it was preceded by an intensive and interrogative consultative process led by the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Advocate Menzi Simelane.
"According to the Criminal Procedure Act, the prosecution is at liberty to prefer any charge as long as it has reliable and admissible evidence to substantiate it ... Prosecutors are therefore within their rights to explore all legal avenues to deal with whatever legal loophole that appears in our endeavor to administer justice," he said.
In instances where the NPA can prove that a motorist's conduct is such that it can be inferred that the motorist had some form of intention to cause the death, then the murder charge is appropriate.
Mhaga cited the case of Cape Town taxi driver Jacob Humphreys who was recently convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for killing 10 children in an accident.
The children died after a train hit the minibus they were travelling in after Humphreys overtook a queue of cars, ignored warning signals and a lowered boom at a level crossing.
The NDPP was of the view that a prosecutor's duty was not to secure a conviction but to present the facts before court in a fair and unbiased manner and the conviction would come as a natural cause, Mhaga said.
In preferring murder charges over culpable homicide, the NPA did not deviate from this important principle and each case would be dealt with on its merits.
"But our society has degenerated to a level where some drivers have total disregard for human life. We can't sit back and watch society decay when we have a legal and constitutional remedy to protect a constitutionally entrenched right to life," he added.
