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Section history

Section 38 — Several persons engaged in the commission of a criminal act may be guilty of different offences

As in force on 2 November 2022.

Timeline 5 versions
  1. 30 March 1987 Enacted
  2. 1 February 2008 Act 51 of 2007
  3. 30 November 2008 Revised edition
  4. 31 December 2021 Revised edition
  5. 2 November 2022 You are here
  6. 17 August 2026 Latest
38.Several persons engaged in the commission of a criminal act may be guilty of different offences

Where several persons are engaged or concerned in the commission of a criminal act, they may be guilty of different offences by means of that act.

Illustration

A attacks Z under such circumstances of grave provocation that his killing of Z would be only culpable homicide not amounting to murder. B, having ill will towards Z, and intending to kill him, and not having been subject to the provocation, assists A in killing Z. Here, though A and B are both engaged in causing Z’s death, B is guilty of murder, and A is guilty only of culpable homicide.