Ramthal v The State

The appellant, Sahil Ramthal, a private security officer, was convicted of murder in the Verulam Regional Court for fatally shooting Senzo Dlamini during a violent altercation on 27 January 2019 in Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal. The deceased had behaved aggressively and irrationally, attacked and overpowered another security officer, Samuel Malasamy, and disarmed him. Ramthal arrived as backup, fired a warning shot, then a shot to the deceased’s leg, and finally a fatal shot to the chest. Ramthal claimed he acted in private defence of himself and Malasamy. He was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. Applications for leave to appeal were refused by the regional court and the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, but special leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) was granted.

The appeal was upheld. The High Court’s order refusing leave to appeal was set aside and replaced with an order granting the appellant leave to appeal to the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court, Pietermaritzburg, against both conviction and sentence.

The case reaffirms the stringent but contextual test for reasonable prospects of success in petitions for leave to appeal under s 309C of the Criminal Procedure Act. It underscores that alleged misdirections in the evaluation of private defence, single-witness evidence, and competent verdicts may justify granting leave to appeal even without deciding the merits.