WALLIS AJ agreement on the contents of the record. Had they done so, the alleged miscommunication would not have occurred. [27] Save in cases of direct access and applications for the confirmation of orders of constitutional invalidity, this Court sits as a court of appeal and decides cases on the basis of the record of the proceedings before the court from which the appeal lies. 18 It is essential therefore that the record be properly compiled in terms of the Rules and that omissions from the record occur by way of agreement between the parties’ representatives. There is nothing unusual in this. It is the norm in all courts in this country where records have to be prepared and has been so for many years. The Rules of this Court in this regard bear a marked similarity to those of the Supreme Court of Appeal.19 There is no reason why this Court should accept records prepared with less 18 S v Lawrence; S v Negal; S v Solberg [1997] ZACC 11; 1997 (4) SA 1176 (CC); 1997 (10) BCLR 1348 (CC) at para 19. That case dealt with the original Rule 19(1) but in the relevant provisions its terms were the same as the present Rule 20. 19 The relevant portions of Rule 8 of the Supreme Court of Appeal Rules provides: “(6) (a) The copies of the record shall be clearly typed on stout A4 standard paper in double-spacing in black record ink, on one side of the paper only. (b) Legible documents that were typed or printed in the original, including all process in the court a quo forming part of the record on appeal, and documents such as typed or printed contracts and cheques (whether handwritten, typed or printed) and the like shall not be retyped and a clear photocopy shall be provided instead. (c) The pages shall be numbered clearly and consecutively, and every tenth line on each page shall be numbered and the pagination used in the court a quo shall be retained where possible. (d) (i) At the top of each page containing evidence, the name of the witness and, at the top of each page containing exhibits, the number of the exhibit, shall appear. (ii) All references in the record to page numbers of exhibits shall be transposed to reflect the page numbers of such exhibits in the appeal record. (e) The record shall be divided into separate conveniently sized volumes of approximately 100 pages each. (f) The record shall be securely bound in suitable covers disclosing— (i) the case number; (ii) the names of the parties; (iii) the volume number and the numbers of the pages contained in that volume; (iv) the total number of volumes in the record; 15