Nohour and Another v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development

The appellants were convicted in 1994 in the Durban Regional Court on charges of kidnapping and rape. They maintained that the complainant consented to sexual intercourse and alleged she was a prostitute. The convictions and sentences were ultimately set aside by the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2003. The appellants thereafter instituted a delictual claim against the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, alleging that the prosecutrix wrongfully and unlawfully failed to disclose material information to the defence and the trial court. The withheld information included admissions by the complainant that she was a prostitute, the investigating officer’s observations confirming this, and material discrepancies between the complainant’s police statement and her testimony. The appellants alleged that this omission caused their wrongful conviction, imprisonment, parole restrictions, loss of earnings, and psychological harm. The High Court found that although wrongfulness and fault were established, causation was not, and dismissed the claim. The appellants appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The appeal was dismissed with costs, including the costs of two counsel.

The case is significant for clarifying the delictual liability of the State for wrongful convictions based on prosecutorial omissions. It confirms the disclosure duties of prosecutors, but emphasises that claimants must still strictly prove factual and legal causation. The judgment reinforces the high threshold for establishing State liability for wrongful convictions in delict and provides authoritative guidance on causation analysis in such claims.