7
legal representative; Krishna’s evidence whether the other persons in the
parade were of similar build, height, age and appearance to the appellant
was unsatisfactory; there is no evidence that the persons on the parade
were similarly dressed and Krishna was not told that the suspect may not
be present. There was no evidence that Krishna had made a prior
description of the robbers, which bore any resemblance to the appellant.
The State, without explanation, failed to lead any other evidence
regarding the circumstances under which the identification parade was
held. The parade’s reliability was not tested and therefore had little
evidential weight.3 For as Van den Heever JA stated:4
‘[W]here such identification rests upon the testimony of a single witness and the
accused was identified at a parade which was admittedly conducted in a manner
which did not guarantee the standard of fairness observed in the recognised
procedure, but was calculated to prejudice the accused, such evidence, standing alone,
can have little weight.’
[14] The learned magistrate and the court below were alive to the
difficulty of relying only on Krishna’s identification of the appellant. But
they found that Ramseroop’s testimony that the appellant had given him
the metal box, which was proved to have been the very one taken during
the robbery, constituted sufficient corroboration to link the appellant
conclusively to the robbery.
[15] With respect to the theft of the Corolla (count 3), counsel for the
appellant urged us to find that Ramseroop’s evidence was insufficient to
establish the appellant’s guilt. He advanced two reasons for his
submission: first that Ramseroop, as an accomplice, had an interest to
3
4
S v Daba 1996 (1) SACR 243 (E) at 249d-e.
R v Masemang 1950 (2) SA 488 (A) at 493-494.