10 [21] Ramseroop’s oral testimony four years after these events was, though given under statutory compulsion, manifestly not given under duress. In cross-examination he denied that he implicated the appellant only because of the ‘terrible hiding’ the police had given him. The question that faces us is whether his evidence relating to the discovery of the Hilux and of the metal box was nevertheless ‘obtained’ within the meaning of s 35(5) of the Constitution and must, for that reason, be excluded. The section reads as follows: ‘Evidence obtained in a manner that violates any right in the Bill of Rights must be excluded if the admission of that evidence would render the trial unfair or otherwise be detrimental to the administration of justice.’ [22] In the pre-constitutional era, applying the law of evidence as applied by the English courts, the courts generally admitted all evidence, irrespective of how obtained, if relevant.5 The only qualification was that ‘the judge always (had) a discretion to disallow evidence if the strict rules of admissibility would operate unfairly against the accused’.6 And where an accused was compelled to incriminate him or herself through a confession or otherwise the evidence was excluded. However, real evidence which was obtained by improper means was more readily admitted (and also because its admission was governed by statute).7 The reason was that such evidence usually bore the hallmark of objective reality compared with narrative testimony that depends on the say-so of a witness. Real evidence is an object which, upon proper identification, becomes, of itself, evidence (such as a knife, firearm, document or 5 S v Pillay 2004 (2) SACR 419 (SCA) para 6 of the judgment by Scott JA. This statement of Lord Goddard in Kuruma v R [1955] 1 All ER 236 at 239, was approved by Rumpff CJ in S v Mushimba 1977 (2) SA 829 (A). 7 See s 218 of The Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1997 and its predecessors, s 274 of The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act 31 of 1917 and s 245 of The Criminal Procedure Act 56 of 1955. 6