Mr Mandla Trust Mpofu was convicted in the South Gauteng High Court in 2001 of murder and other serious offences committed in January 1998, and was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 28 years’ imprisonment on other counts (running concurrently). He had exhausted ordinary appeal routes. He later approached the Constitutional Court contending that he was a child at the time of the offences and that the sentencing court failed properly to consider his constitutional rights under section 28 of the Constitution. Considerable uncertainty existed regarding his exact age at the time of the offences, compounded by missing trial records and conflicting documentation. The High Court judgment referred to his youthfulness but did not clearly address whether he was under 18 at the relevant time. The present application concerned whether leave to appeal should be granted against sentence.