It was unacceptable that a rape survivor’s chance of getting justice depended on whether there was a specialised court near her home.
Fatima Chohan-Kota, chairperson of the parliamentary justice committee, made the point during last week’s Departmentof Justice budget briefing to the committee. At the briefing it emerged that the Sexual Offences Courts had a 68% conviction rate compared with 42% in ordinary courts.
“This can’t be acceptable… There’s a huge problem, clearly, at the regional court,” Chohan-Kota said.
There are a limited number of Sexual Offences Courts — 50 among the approximately 1 000 courts countrywide. Justice officials told MPs on Tuesday that the department planned to establish another 15 such courts this year. In addition, 40 regional magistrates had been trained to deal with sexual offences.
Last month the government announced that it would open 10 such specialised courts every year over the next five years and also increase the number of Thuthuzela Centres, where police, health and social workers are at hand for survivors of sexual abuse.
During the ministerial briefing at Parliament, the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, who chairs government’s justice cluster, also announced that a review of the whole criminal justice system was under way.
Regional offices are to be phased out by August 2005. Under the envisaged structure courts will be grouped into clusters, court managers appointed to relieve chief magistrates of administrative burdens and court service centres established to provide human resources and financial transactions. The restructuring will proceed one province at a time.
MPs were told that in KwaZulu- Natal, the pilot province for the restructuring, the new system had resulted in a 50% saving in administrative costs.