Mike Bolhuis comments on the Unlawful entry on Premises Bill, 2022

SA – On 12 August 2022 the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development issued a notice in the Government Gazette, inviting public comments on the proposed Unlawful Entry on Premises Bill, 2022 (the Bill). 

The deadline for public comment closed on 16 September. Refer to our previous articles published on our website and Facebook page regarding the unlawful entry on premises bill. 

In the interim, Mike Bolhuis, Specialist Investigators into Serious Violent & Serious Economic Crimes, gave additional comment to our readers as food for thought. 

He said: “The main concerns of the proposed bill are…” 
Law-abiding citizens are prescribed what to do in the event that there is an ‘intruder’ on their premises. It seems to be prescribed for instances where there is no real and/or immediate danger.
My question posed is, therefore, what effect does this act have on emergency situations such as burglaries and life-threatening events? 

Does it take away the personal defences and right to protect yourself, others, your property and/or someone else’s property?

My suggestion would therefore be that a clause be included to explicitly protect the abovementioned right and personal defences in that it does not preclude same.

It is furthermore unclear what the legislator intended when proposing section 8 in that an authorised member of SAPS will be the person to deal with these instances where an intruder refuses to evict themselves. This seems to be impractical especially in the event that the act is intended to affect personal defences. 

It is lastly unclear as to what is meant by an experienced SAPS member. It also poses the question as to whether this will then preclude any other SAPS member from dealing with these matters as they will be seen as unauthorised. This in my view will have a negative impact on the administration of justice and the authority a police officer holds. 

It is unclear as to how many ‘authorised’ SAPS members there will be per district and how this will be established.

#FosteringASenseOfCommunity