Rex v Kuyper [1915] ZATPD 56 (10 August 1915)

Criminal Law. - Procedure. -Accomplice as Crown witness. - Refusal to take oath -Refusing to give evidence.-Answers would tend to incriminate.-Protection from prosecution. Act 11 of 1915, sec. 8.

An accomplice called as a Crown witness cannot refuse to take the oath. In a trial for high treason, the Crown called as a witness a person who at the commencement of Act 11 of 1915 was detained in custody in terms of sec. 8 (1) of the Act and against whom no criminal proceedings were·pending at the date mentioned in the said section. The witness, after being sworn, refused to answer certain questions on the ground that the answer would tend to
incriminate him of seditions and treasonable acts, Held, that by virtue of sec. 8 he was immune from prosecution and punishment for any such acts, and that he was therefore not justified in refusing to answer the questions. "'To entitle a witness to the privilege of. silence, the circumstances of the case
and the nature of the evidence which the witness is called to give must be such that there is reasonable ground to apprehend danger to him from his
being compelled to answer. The danger to be apprehended must be real and appreciable, with reference to the, ordinary operation of law in the ordinary, course of things.