CHAPTER 29
WITNESSES
Witness to attend proceedings and to remain in attendance
210. (1) A witness who is subpoenaed to attend criminal proceedings must attend such proceedings and remain in attendance at the proceedings, and a person who is in attendance at criminal proceedings, though not subpoenaed as a witness, and who is warned by the court to remain in attendance at the proceedings, must remain in attendance at the proceedings unless that witness or that person is excused by the court.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the court may, at any time during the criminal proceedings in question, order that any person, other than the accused, who is to be called as a witness, must leave the court and remain absent from the proceedings until that person is called, and that that person must remain in court after he or she has given evidence.
Failure by witness to attend or to remain in attendance
211. (1) A person who is subpoenaed to attend criminal proceedings and who fails to attend or to remain in attendance at such proceedings, and a person who is warned by the court to remain in attendance at criminal proceedings and who fails to remain in attendance at such proceedings, and a person so subpoenaed or so warned who fails to appear at the place and on the date and at the time to which the proceedings in question may be adjourned or who fails to remain in attendance at such proceedings as so adjourned, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to the punishment contemplated in subsection (2).
(2) Section 192(2) applies with the necessary changes to a person referred to in subsection (1).
Powers of court with regard to recalcitrant witness
212. (1) If a person present at criminal proceedings is required to give evidence at such proceedings and refuses to be sworn or to make an affirmation as a witness, or, having been sworn or having made an affirmation as a witness, refuses to answer any question put to him or her or refuses or fails to produce any book, paper or document required to be produced by him or her, the court may in a summary manner enquire into such refusal or failure and, unless the person so refusing or failing has a just excuse for his or her refusal or failure, sentence that person to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.
(2) After the expiration of any sentence imposed under subsection (1), the person concerned may from time to time again be dealt with under that subsection with regard to any further refusal or failure.
(3) A court may at any time on good cause shown remit any punishment or part thereof imposed by it under subsection (1).
(4) Any sentence imposed by a court under subsection (1) must be executed and be subject to appeal in the same manner as a sentence imposed in any criminal case by that court, and must be served before any other sentence of imprisonment imposed on the person concerned.
(5) The court may, notwithstanding any action taken under this section, at any time conclude the criminal proceedings referred to in subsection (1).
(6) No person is bound to produce any book, paper or document not specified in a subpoena served on him or her, unless that person has that book, paper or document in court.
Impeachment or support of credibility of witness
213. (1) Any party may in criminal proceedings impeach or support the credibility of a witness called against or on behalf of that party in any manner in which and by any evidence by which the credibility of that witness might in terms of the law in force immediately before 21 March 1990 have been impeached or supported by that party.
(2) Any party who has called a witness who has given evidence in criminal proceedings (whether that witness is or is not, in the opinion of the court, adverse to the party calling him or her) may, after that party or the court has asked the witness whether he or she did or did not previously make a statement with which his or her evidence in the proceedings in question is inconsistent, and after sufficient particulars of the alleged previous statement to designate the occasion when it was made have been given to the witness, prove that the witness previously made a statement with which such evidence is inconsistent.
Procedure for witness testimony - national proceedings
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