Government needs to address the ”painfully slow” progress of criminal cases through South Africa’s courts, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Wednesday.
The problem was highlighted recently in two cases before the high court, DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said in a statement.
”In two landmark decisions, the judges have at last got tough, struck the cases from the court roll until the prosecution is ready to proceed, and ordered the state to pay the cost.”
In doing so, they had struck a blow for justice by underlining the fact that justice delayed was justice denied.
”However, these decisions offer no comfort for the victims of these crimes and their families — a car hijacking syndicate in the one case, and murder in the other,” she said.
Unfortunately, these were not isolated cases.
”In our recent oversight visits around the country, the justice portfolio committee discovered several other cases — for instance, a woman in Johannesburg who had been awaiting trial in prison for five years on a shoplifting charge.”
The DA agreed with Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, who earlier this week told the committee it was intolerable that awaiting-trial periods were so long.
Camerer said the lack of capacity in the country’s court system should to be acknowledged and addressed.
”This cannot be solved without adequate resources. It is also a question of budget.
”The DA calls on the government to pay urgent attention to adequate resourcing for our court system, in order to improve capacity,” she said. – Sapa