Revisiting Criminal Medical Negligence Resulting in Death. S v Van Heerden 2010 1 SACR 529 (ECP)

Cases dealing with criminal medical negligence in South Africa are relatively rare, and rarer still are those that are reported. In fact, the last reported case dealing explicitly with criminal negligence (of specifically medical specialists) resulting in the death of a patient is S v Kramer 1987 1 SA 887 (W). It is for this reason that the reported case under discussion, more than two decades after the Kramer decision, is of interest. Of particular interest would be a principled assessment of the judgment, in context of criminal medical negligence with reference to the crime of culpable homicide. In this case, it is specifically some of the elements of criminal liability, namely the actus reus (in the form of an omission), causation and fault that attract academic attention, albeit by way of a deconstruction of the judgment