A person who has been convicted following a trial or has pleaded guilty and been sentenced by a District or Supreme Court Judge has a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court [see Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) s 157]. These appeals are governed by the Joint Criminal Rules 2022 (SA) Chapter 9 Part 4.

The appeal must be made on one of the following grounds [s 157]:

The appellant is entitled to be present at the appeal by audio-visual link unless the appeal is based on a question of law only, in which case the permission of the Court must be obtained for an appellant who is in custody to be present [see Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) s 167].

The Notice of Appeal must be filed with the Court of Appeal within 21 days of the date of the judgment, decision or order being appealed [see Joint Criminal Rules 2022 (SA) r 193.1].

The Court of Appeal would ordinarily be comprised of 3 Judges [see Joint Criminal Rules 2022 (SA) r 192.3(a)]. In some matters the Chief Justice or President of the Court of Appeal may determine that the Court of Appeal should be comprised of 2 or 5 Judges, depending on the matter [see r 192.3(b) and (c)].

Under rule 192.4, a single Judge may hear applications which are interlocutory or ancillary to an appeal to the Court of Appeal such as [r 201.1]: