NGCOBO J constitutional issues. In effect, therefore, the High Court concluded that a decision on the constitutional issues that it had referred to this Court was not necessary to confirm the conviction of Mr Mokoena.18 [25] It is apparent from the second judgment that when the High Court was considering whether to proceed and consider the conviction of Mr Mokoena, it was concerned about the delay that had already occurred in these matters. The constitutional issues that it had itself raised and which had contributed to the delay were no longer its concern as it took the view that our decision on those issues was not necessary to confirm the conviction. The consideration of the constitutional issues by the High Court and the referral of the orders of invalidity have resulted in an unnecessary delay in the finalisation of a matter which could have been finalised during 2006, or at the very latest, 2007. Moreover, this resulted in this Court having to consider a matter which, on the judge’s own view, did call for a decision on the constitutional issues. And despite all this, the judge did not consider it desirable to draw our attention to any change in his view on the need to decide the constitutional issues in the case of Mr Mokoena. This could have been done by sending a copy of his judgment to our Registrar. 18 The court concluded that there was nothing preventing it from considering the credibility of the complainant and the reliability of her evidence. And it recorded that neither the defence nor the state objected to it doing so. While noting that the regional court had been “singularly insensitive to the child’s feelings and the child’s interests in not being identified as a victim of a sexual assault”, the court concluded that the “irregularities did not redound to the accused’s detriment.” (S v A Mokoena and A Phaswane Case No CC7/07, North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, 24 October 2008, unreported at p 22.) This largely related to the fact that the proceedings were open to the public after the child had completed her testimony. (Above n 10 at para 3(j)-(n).) It found the complainant to be a credible witness and accordingly confirmed the conviction. 14