The right to silence in South Africa’s Constitution is in need of amendment

OPINION | The right to silence in South Africa’s Constitution is in need of amendment: The Oscar Pistorius trial shows how tweaking the right to silence would not jeopardies justice but would enhance it

Today we see and hear none other than our president, Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa, keeping mum about what occurred at his Phala Phala farm, even though he is the subject of very serious criminal charges.

2. He believed that Pistorius mistakenly killed Steenkamp thinking there was an intruder behind the door who he fully intended to execute ;4. They believed that he neither intended nor foresaw death but was negligent in his conduct, which negligence resulted in death . That is what our law, under our Constitution allowed him to do. It is called the “right to silence”, and it is regarded as sacred. Every accused person, even if caught red-handed raping a baby is entitled to shut up, refuse to explain his actions and later arrive in court with whatever story he has been able to cook up.

It should be noted that the reason why the so-called right to silence is regarded as sacred in most of the free world is because of a history where the use of force, even torture, by bad governments to extract false confessions out of innocent people, became something that really needed to be avoided.

South Africa has a terrible crime rate; one of the worst on this planet. The conviction rate is just as bad. We do need to amend the Constitution and change the law. A blanket right to silence only benefits criminals.

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