LEGAL ENGINE OR STEAM ENGINE? Africa Solar (Pty) Ltd v Divwatt (Pty) Ltd 2002 4 SA 681 (SCA)

Abstract

Cross-examination has long been the backbone of the Anglo-American adversarial trial system and indeed it is difficult to imagine a trial without it. Its importance has been remarked on by legal scholars and commentators, inter alia, Wigmore, above, and it has also been enshrined in section 35(3)(i) of the South African Constitution Act (108 of 1996) in the form of the “right to challenge evidence”, which of course extends further than crossexamination, but certainly incorporates it.