Declarations
Reservations

Articles: 4,15,16,17,23

"1. Reservations
That the Republic of South Africa excludes the following in terms of Article 33 of the Convention, namely –

(a) the application of the provision of paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the Convention, which provides that a Letter of Request shall be accepted in French; and
(b) the application of the provisions of Articles 15 and 16 of Chapter II of the Convention.

2. (...)

3. Declarations
That the Republic of South Africa makes the following declarations under the Convention:

(a) For the purposes of paragraph 4 of Article 4 of the Convention, a Letter of Request, if not in English, may also be sent to the Central Authority in any of the following languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, isiNdebele, isiXhosa et isiZulu.
(b) Members of the judicial personnel of the requesting authority of another Contracting State may, after authorisation by the competent authority referred to in Article 8 of the Convention, be present at the execution of a Letter of Request as contemplated in that article.
(c) Evicence may not be taken in terms of Article 17 of the Convention without the prior permission of the competent authority referred to in that article.
(d) A commissioner authorised to take evidence under Article 17 of the Convention may, in terms of Article 18 of the Convention, apply to the competent authority referred to in that article to obtain the evidence by compulsion, subject to the measures of compulsion which are appropriate and prescribed by South African law for use in internal proceedings.
(e) Letters of Request issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents as known in common law countries, will not be executed as provided for in Article 23."