South African judges blew millions on Mercedes, BMWs and Volvos, writes Andy Duffy
South African judges spent more than R5-million of taxpayers’ money on luxury new cars last year.
Most of the money came from the Department of Justice, months before the cash- crunch that forced it to halt overtime pay to its advocates and prosecutors. The department and the country’s attorneys general have also recently warned Parliament that underfunding is crippling the justice system.
The department’s latest figures show that 20 judges took top-of-the-range Mercedes, BMWs and Volvos as part of their remuneration packages.
Eight judges, including Deputy Judge President Piet van der Walt, opted for the Mercedes E320, which normally sells for R319 000. Three unidentified judges went for the BMW740iA, which sells for R440 900, before extras such as buffalo leather seats and colour TVs. Another judge took a Mercedes S320, which normally sells for R428 000.
Minister of Justice Dullah Omar approved all the deals, in terms of a judiciary remuneration scheme established under the previous government. The cars were all bought at hefty discounts to market prices.
The total expenditure – R5,12-million – nevertheless shines like a beacon in an otherwise gloomy, cash-strapped justice system.
Poorly paid advocates and prosecutors are leaving in droves, and those left in the service are snowed under with case loads.
The money spent on the judges’ cars would have been enough to pay the annual salaries of 34 senior state prosecutors – three times the number operating in the office of Western Cape Attorney General Frank Kahn.
Omar, who drives a 1992 Toyota Camry, says the expenditure is justified and in the public interest. “It is widely accepted overseas that a judge be remunerated adequately,” Omar’s representative, Paul Setsetse, says.
Judges currently earn a basic salary of about R375 000 a year. “It is important to ensure a judge is well looked after, to ensure they are not exposed to bribery or corruption.” He adds that there are no plans to entice the judiciary to tighten its belt.
Other pundits, however, say such spending is a waste of resources.
Vincent Saldanha, representative of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, says the car spending suggests the department’s priorities are askew, “given the severe crisis it faces in terms of courts, magistrates, prosecutors, the whole infrastructure. That money can better be allocated to meeting these immediate needs.
“The argument has always been that judges need to be paid a salary that doesn’t open them to corruption, but one needs to draw the line somewhere. Judges need cars, but this should be done with a greater sense of modesty.”
Department regulations currently allow permanent judges a new car to the value of around R370 000 – at current government purchase prices, the Mercedes Benz S320 or the BMW 740iA.
The state is supposed to take back the car once the judge steps down. Most judges, however, buy the car at the market value at that stage.
The department bought 11 cars for new appointees last year and two replacement cars for judges in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. The other provinces bought the remaining seven replacement cars. Eight of the 20 new cars were bought for judges in Gauteng, including six replacement Mercedes for judges such as Judge van der Walt, and Pretoria High Court judges Freddie Roos and Henk van Dyk.
Wim Trengove, SC, member of the Judicial Services Commission, says the judges’ package is “not out of line with what is necessary to attract the best lawyers to the bench”.
He adds that judges’ remuneration is still low compared to the private sector and to judges’ pay overseas, and that if the cars were to go, salaries would have to rise.
“As far as the overall package is concerned, judges are under the same moral obligation as everyone else in the public service: the public interest requires all of us to tighten our belts.”
Trengove drives a second-hand Toyota Land Cruiser.