CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE ACT 253 Hearsay evidence (1) No evidence which is of the nature of hearsay evidence shall be admissible in any case in which such evidence would be inadmissible in any similar case depending in the Supreme Court of Judicature in England. (2) When evidence of a statement, oral or written, made in the ordinary course of duty, contemporaneously with the facts stated and without motive to misrepresent, would be admissible in the Supreme Court of Judicature in England if the person who made the statement were dead, such evidence shall be admissible in any criminal proceedings if the person who made the statement is dead or unfit by reason of his bodily or mental condition to attend as a witness or cannot with reasonable diligence be identified or found or brought before the court. [Subsection as amended by s. 28 of Act No. 9 of 2006] (3) The court may, in deciding whether or not the person in question— (a) is unfit to attend as a witness, act on a certificate purporting to be a certificate of a medical practitioner; (b) is dead or cannot with reasonable diligence be identified or found or brought before the court, act on evidence submitted by way of affidavit. 254 Admissibility of dying declarations (1) A declaration made by any deceased person upon the apprehension of death shall be admissible or inadmissible in evidence in every case in which such declaration would be admissible or inadmissible in any similar case depending in the Supreme Court of Judicature in England. (2) When it is made to appear to the satisfaction of any magistrate that any person is dangerously ill and, in the opinion of a medical practitioner, not likely to recover from such illness and is able and willing to give material information relating to any offence or to any person accused of any offence, and it is not practicable to examine in accordance with any other provision of this Act the person so being ill, it shall be lawful for the said magistrate to take in writing the statement on oath of such person. (3) The magistrate taking a statement in terms of subsection (2) shall sign it and set out his reason for taking the same, the date and place of taking it and the names of the persons, if any, present at the time. (4) If afterwards, upon the trial of any offender or offence to which the same may relate, the person who made a statement taken in terms of subsection (2) is proved to be dead, or if it is proved that there is no reasonable probability that such person will ever be able to travel or give evidence, it shall be lawful to read such statement in evidence either for or against the accused without further proof thereof— (a) if the same purports to be signed by the magistrate by or before whom it purports to be taken; and (b) if it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that reasonable notice of the intention to take such statement has been served upon the person, whether prosecutor or accused, against whom it is proposed to be read in evidence and that such person or his legal representative had or might have had, if he had chosen to be present, full opportunity of cross-examining the person who made the same. 255 Admissibility in criminal cases of evidence of absent witnesses in certain circumstances (1) The evidence of any witness— (a) given at a former criminal trial of an accused on the same or a different charge and recorded in a document purporting— (i) to be a transcript of the original record of the said evidence; (ii) to have been certified as correct under the hand of the person who transcribed it; or (b) whose deposition has been verified in terms of section 115A; 94