State must prove drug value before sentencing

THE Constitutional Court has ruled that minimum sentencing legislation in cases involving drug manufacturing or drug dealing cannot apply where the State has not proved the market value of the drugs.

Convicted drug dealer and manufacturer Michael Klaas brought an application before the country’s apex court for leave to appeal against an order of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

In 2013, the Alexandra Regional Court sentenced him to 15 years for dealing in drugs and five years for manufacturing drugs, with the sentences to run concurrently.

He appealed his conviction and sentence, twice in the high court and once in the SCA. All three applications were dismissed, so Klaas then turned to the Constitutional Court.

In the Concourt, Klaas argued his right to privacy had been infringed when police searched his house in 2009 without a search warrant and in his absence, seizing drugs, chemicals and equipment for manufacturing drugs.

He also argued the State had not proved the drugs were manufactured in his house.

In a media statement, the Concourt said the applicant had been rightly convicted but “did not have a fair trial at the sentencing stage”.

In terms of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, a firsttime offender must be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years if the drugs were valued at more than R50 000 and the accused was acting alone, or if the drugs were worth over R10 000 and the accused was acting as part of a syndicate.

In the case of Klaas, 2 920 mandrax tablets had been seized, but the State had not proved the value of the drugs.

The Concourt held there had been an irregularity in sentencing and it was entitled to reconsider the applicant’s sentence.

The court reduced Klaas’s original sentence of 15 years for drug dealing to 12 years to run concurrently with his five-year sentence for drug dealing.