has decided to grant a pardon or reprieve to the person so sentenced or otherwise to exercise the prerogative of mercy with regard to him. (3) Any notice by the Attorney-General under the proviso to subsection (2) shall be construed for all purposes as a cancellation of the judge’s warrant. B. Imprisonment and fine 343 Cumulative or concurrent sentences (1) When a person is convicted at one trial of two or more different offences or when a person under sentence or undergoing punishment for one offence is convicted of another offence, the court may sentence him to such several punishments for such offences or for such last offence, as the case may be, as the court is competent to impose. (2) When sentencing any person to punishments in terms of subsection (1), the court may direct the order in which the sentences shall be served or that such sentences shall run concurrently. 344 Discretion of court as to amount and nature of punishment (1) Subject to paragraph (a) of section three hundred and thirty-seven, where any person is liable by law to a sentence of imprisonment for life or for any period, he may be imprisoned for any shorter period. [Subsection amended by section 13 of Act 8 of 1997.] (2) A person liable by law to be sentenced to pay a fine of any amount may be sentenced to pay a fine of any lesser amount. (3) Subsections (1) and (2) shall not apply to any offence for which a minimum penalty is prescribed in the enactment prescribing a punishment for the offence. 344A Imprisonment for life Subject to any other law, the effect of a sentence of imprisonment for life imposed on or after the date of commencement of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Act, 1997, shall be that the person so sentenced shall remain imprisoned for the rest of his life. [Section inserted by section 14 of Act 8 of 1997.] 345 Periodical imprisonment (1) For the purposes of this section— “appropriate prison” means a prison specified by the Minister, by statutory instrument, as a prison in which a person may be sentenced to undergo periodical imprisonment in terms of this section. (2) If a court convicts a person of an offence specified in the Sixth Schedule, it may, in lieu of any other punishment referred to in subsection (2) of section three hundred and thirty-six and after ascertaining from the officer in charge of the appropriate prison that accommodation for the purpose is available, sentence that person to undergo, in accordance with the law relating to prisons, periodical imprisonment in that prison for a period of not less than ninety-six hours and not more than two thousand hours. (3) The court imposing a sentence of periodical imprisonment upon any person in terms of this section shall— (a) cause such photographs, finger-prints, palm-prints or footprints of that person to be taken as are reasonably necessary for identification purposes; and (b) cause that person to be furnished with a written notice in the prescribed form directing that he shall, on a date and at a time specified in the notice or, if prevented from doing so by circumstances beyond his control, as soon as possible thereafter, surrender himself for the purpose of undergoing that imprisonment to the officer in charge of the prison specified in the notice. (4) A copy of the notice referred to in subsection (3) shall serve as a warrant for the admission into the prison concerned of the convicted person and his confinement therein in accordance with the law relating to prisons. (5) A person who— (a) without lawful excuse, the proof whereof shall be on him, fails to comply with a notice with which he has been furnished in terms of paragraph (b) of subsection (3); or (b) surrenders himself for the purpose of undergoing periodical imprisonment while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or narcotic drugs; or (c) impersonates or falsely represents himself to be a person who has been directed to surrender himself for the purpose of undergoing periodical imprisonment; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months. (6) If, before the expiry of a sentence of periodical imprisonment imposed on a person in terms of this section, that person undergoes punishment consisting of any other form of detention imposed by any court, any magistrate before whom that person is brought shall set aside the unexpired portion of the sentence of periodical imprisonment and, after considering the evidence recorded in respect of the offence in respect of which the sentence of periodical imprisonment was imposed, may impose, in lieu of such unexpired portion, any punishment which is competent for that offence and does not exceed his own punitive jurisdiction in respect of that offence.