Special Report Transcript Episode 22, Section 2, Time 09:25

During the eighties the common purpose principle was widely used in our courts. Sharpeville, Upington and Delmas saw some of the high profile cases in which people were found guilty of murders they had not actually committed. But what exactly is common purpose? // // Common purpose is a principle in our law in terms of which a group of people who participated in certain actions can be, without actually directly committing a particular crime can be associated or seen to have associated themselves sufficiently strongly with the deed of the perpetrator, that they too can be found guilty of the same crime. Just very briefly, there are two principles or two elements, critical elements, which have to be proved. The one is intent to kill and the other is the actual action.

Notes: Newspaper headlines: ‘Upington goes the route of the Sharpeville Six, ’ ‘The Six – a case of rough justice?,’ ‘What happens to people when they join a mob’; Brian Currin (Lawyer)