Rex v Pearson [1914] ZATPD 113 (9 November 1914)

Public welfare and moratorium Act 1 of 1914.-Government Notice 1604 of 1914.-Spreading false Information.-Onus of prooj.-Effect of admission that statement was a joke.

Where an accused person was charged with communicating to another untrue information calculated to cause alarm, without belief in its truth, Held, that to obtain a conviction the onus lay on the Crown to establish that the information was untrue.
An accused person so charged stated in regard to the information that he " heard it as a joke and repeated it as a joke."
Held, per DE VILLIERS, J.P., and GREGOROWSKI, J., that this did not amount to an admission that the statement was untrue. Per WESSELS, J., that it did.