ABSTRACT
In late 1997, less than four years after South Africa became a democracy with a Constitution that guarantees the independence of the judiciary and includes a justiciable Bill of Rights, the first South African parliament ever elected on universal suffrage unanimously passed legislation introducing minimum sentences for specified offences. On the face of it, this legislation severely restricts the capacity of the courts to impose the sentences they deem appropriate for a greater range of serious common law offences than ever before in South African history.
