CCT56/05

2007 (2) BCLR 140 (CC)

2006 (2) SACR 525 (CC)

Nkabinde J

29 September 2006

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12144/2491

Application for leave to appeal against the judgment of the SCA, reported as Prophet v National Director of Public Prosecutions 2006 (1) SA 38 (SCA), upholding a forfeiture order granted by the Cape HC, reported as National Director of Public Prosecutions v Prophet 2003 (6) SA 154 (C) ; 2003 (8) BCLR 906 (C).

The applicant sought leave to appeal against a SCA decision which upheld the forfeiture of the applicant's property in terms of Chapter 6 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. The Court held that the property was an instrumentality of the offence of drug manufacturing. It held that the forfeiture did not constitute an arbitrary deprivation of property, nor was it disproportionate given the nature of the offence and extent of the instrumentality of the property. It also held that the forfeiture was valid despite the applicant's acquittal on drug-dealing charges in the Magistrates Court because there was a reasonable probability that the house was an instrument of the crime. The appeal was accordingly dismissed. Unanimous judgment by Nkabinde J.