Criminal
Roman-Dutch common-law crimes, no death penalty, and community courts
Serious crimes remain common-law offences in the Roman-Dutch tradition — murder, culpable homicide, robbery — supplemented by statute. The Constitution abolished the death penalty outright in Article 6. The Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, inherited from South Africa, still governs procedure.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Magistrates' courts try most offences; the High Court hears murder and serious matters; the Supreme Court is final.
- Deadline — Arrested person brought before a court within 48 hours
Governing law
- Constitution art 6 — abolition of capital punishment
- Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977
- Combating of Rape Act 8 of 2000
In practice
Namibia is a rare case of constitutional abolition of the death penalty at the moment of independence, which forecloses the legislative debate that continues in Botswana and Zimbabwe.