6 minimum sentence of life imprisonment for the murder. Taking the second and third charges as one for the purposes of sentence, he sentenced the appellant to imprisonment for a minimum term of 15 years. Sandi AJ granted the appellant leave to appeal against sentence to the full court of the Eastern Cape Division. The majority of the court (Liebenberg J, Parker AJ concurring) considered the application of s51(3)(b), but concluded that although, since the appellant’s age had been overlooked in the trial court, it was entitled to impose sentence afresh, the sentence of life imprisonment was appropriate. In dismissing the appeal, the majority held that the interpretation of s51(3)(b) by Cachalia J (Blieden J and Jordaan AJ concurring) in S v Nkosi 2002 (1) SACR 135 (W) was wrong and declined to follow it. In his dissent Pillay J followed Nkosi. [6] At the hearing of the appeal, Mr Pretorius on behalf of the appellant, somewhat surprisingly, disavowed reliance on Nkosi or for that matter the minority judgment of Pillay J in the court a quo. Instead he favoured the construction placed on s51 by Liebenberg J. Further support for such an interpretation, he submitted, was to be found in the later judgment of Direkteur van Openbare Vervolgings, Transvaal v Makwetsja 2004 (2) SACR 1 (T). Makwetsja, a full bench decision of the Transvaal Provincial Division, declined to follow Nkosi and also the