South Africa -

Public law covers interactions between legal persons and the

government [Martin, E., A dictionary of law. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 2003.], as well as interactions between different
institutions within a state, distinct branches of government, and
relationships between people who directly affect society. Public Law
includes Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure Law, and
Administrative law.
South Africa follows Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 for Criminal
procedural law. The Administrative law governed by the constitution
and legislations like Promotion of Administrative Justice Act
(PAJA) [Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000] which is an
important piece of legislation in the South African Administrative
law.

Common Law prevails in South Africa when a particular matter is

not covered under the legislation. Majority of South African
common law is Roman-Dutch law which was prevalent in the 17th
and 18th Century that was transplanted to the Cape. [African Charter
on Human and Peoples' Rights]. As this makes a base of the modern
South African Law, it becomes binding. Murder, robbery, rape are
some of the examples of crimes included in the common law.
However, the common law prevailing in South Africa is not purely
Roman-Dutch common law anymore. This is because, by means of
precedent, the English law had influenced the Common law in South
Africa. The sources of Roman-Dutch law consist of the old sources
which are - legislation (placaaten), judgements of the old Dutch
courts and writings of learned authors which were considered
authorities such as Voet, van Leeuwarm, Hugo de Groot, and van der
Linden.

South Africa -
Criminal Procedure Act, 1977, which is followed by south Africa is also in force in Namibia. It
was passed down to Namibia by the South African administration of South-West Africa. In 1979,
administration of this act was transferred to the SWA government. However, since then, the
Namibian and the South African versions have diverged by the way of amendment. Namibia had
passed a new Criminal procedure Act in 2004 but did not implement it till now.
South African Case laws and academic authorities have great influence in the criminal courts of
Botswana and feature prominently in their reported criminal cases. [Van Niekerk, Gardiol J. “The
Application of South African Law in the Courts of Botswana.” The Comparative and International
Law Journal of Southern Africa, vol. 37, no. 3, 2004, pp. 312–326.] Apart from this Lesotho is also
largely influenced by South African common law. [Poulter, Sebastian. “The Common Law in
Lesotho.” Journal of African Law, vol. 13, no. 3, 1969, pp. 127–144.] Eswatini and Zimbabwe also
share South African common and civil law due to the geographical proximity and common historical
background.