Sithembisa Mana v The State

The appellant was convicted in the Port Elizabeth Regional Court on two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm arising from a robbery at the Algoa Park Post Office on 1 March 2002. During the robbery, a cardboard box was used as a ruse to gain access to the post office and was later left behind. A palm print found on the inside of the box was later linked to the appellant, four years after the robbery, following his arrest on an unrelated matter. There was no other evidence linking the appellant to the crime. He denied involvement and suggested that he may have innocently handled similar cardboard boxes in the past. His appeal to the High Court failed, but he was granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The appeal was upheld and the convictions and sentences were set aside.

The case reaffirms the stringent approach South African courts must take when assessing circumstantial evidence in criminal matters, particularly where fingerprint or palm print evidence is the sole link between an accused and a crime. It underscores the continued importance of the principles in R v Blom and cautions against convictions based on speculative inferences.