S v JONGWE 1987 (2) ZLR 12 (H)

Flynote

Criminal procedure — correction of judgement or sentence delivered by mistake — meaning of — Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act[Chapter 59] — s 190(2) — procedure does not apply where court has delivered competent and considered sentence but thereafter reconsidered its decision.

Headnote

The procedure set out in s 190(2) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 59] allows for the timeous correction of a judgment or sentencedelivered "by mistake". Such a mistake must be a genuine mistake in the delivery of the sentence - either a mistake in the sense that the judicial officer said something different from what he had intended to say or else a mistake in the sense that the sentence pronounced was an incompetent one. Where, however, a competent and considered sentence is delivered, the judicial officer is functus officio. If he thereafter has second thoughts about the matter, the subsection cannot be invoked.