On November 27, 2013, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal held in National Commissioner of the South African Police Service v. Southern African Human Rights Litigation Centre that the South African Police Service (SAPS) is empowered to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed in Zimbabwe against Zimbabwean nationals “whether or not the alleged perpetrators are present in South Africa.”  In so doing, the Court of Appeals reversed the North Gauteng High Court’s May 2012 ruling in favor of the SAPS’s decision not to investigate torture as a crime against humanity committed by Zimbabwean police and officials against Zimbabwean citizens in Zimbabwe.  The Court of Appeals held that the SAPS is “required to initiate an investigation under the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act 27 of 2002 into the alleged offences,” though it noted it is “not for [the] court to prescribe to the [SAPS] Commissioner how the investigation is to be conducted” and that “the SAPS will consider issues such as the gathering of information in a manner that does not impinge on Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.”  The Court also noted that this case was the first in which the question of South Africa’s competence to investigate crimes against humanity has arisen directly.