Jail sentences not thestuff of dreams - judge
2003-05-09 12:56
Johannesburg - A man, who received a five-year prison sentence based on the interpretation of a dream that revealed his "guilt", has been freed by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Judge Piet Streicher said: "The conviction of the appellant is so blatantly wrong that nothing further need be said in this regard."
Ndivhulo Ronald Tshikopo was sentenced to jail for five years in 1998 after a crime victim told the court he had dreamed Tshipoko was guilty.
A man referred to as Mr Nevhulaudzi, admitted in court he had not seen the faces of his three attackers when he was hijacked and robbed in Northern Province in August 1992.
Police had shown him photographs of possible suspects, including Tshikopo, and he was called to court as a witness "because the law must have seen something" - implying he believed Tshikopo was, indeed, one of his attackers.
"And the other thing that confirms that these are the people who attacked me, was because on the date I came to court here, I went home and the very same evening I had a dream and the dream was about the attack that I went through... and I saw those faces," he testified.
At the conclusion of his testimony, the judge said: "Thank you very much for exercising your civic duty to come to court to testify as you did, Mr Nevhulaudzi. Thank you very much."
The judge then sentenced Tshikopo, saying the court could not interpret dreams, and thus had to rely on Nevhulaudzi's testimony.
"Since this court is not an interpreter of dreams, this part of the evidence is left open by this court," said the judge.
Tshikopo appealed, and the Supreme Court of Appeal acquitted him of robbery this week - almost five years after he was sent to prison.
A daily newspaper quoted Judge Streicher as saying: "That the judge in the High Court, on the evidence of Nevhulaudzi and in the face of the denial by Tshipoko, could have been satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the appellant's guilt is shocking."