More than half of the one million cases that made it last year on to the rolls of South Africa’s lower courts were withdrawn or struck off, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday.
Speaking during debate on the Justice and Constitutional Development Department budget vote in the National Assembly, DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer told MPs drastic action is also needed to reduce growing case backlogs.
”Negative trends in South Africa’s 2 000-odd court rooms include steadily growing outstanding court rolls — some 210 000 cases in the lower court, as well as increasing backlogs.
”[These include] nearly 37 000 cases in the lower courts — that’s cases over 12 months old — and 20 000 cases in the regional courts, where most serious violent crime is dealt with,” she said.
Court sitting hours and case-finalisation rates have dropped for three years in a row, and, generally, case cycle times have increased, despite the appointment of 260 court managers.
”Conviction rates and the rate of settlement of cases by plea bargaining are both down, according to the National Prosecuting Authority, and appeals often take five years to finalise — far too long.
”Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this poor performance is the large and increasing number of cases that make it to court, but then fall by the wayside.
”Last year, some 590 000 of the million-odd cases enrolled in the lower courts, fell by the wayside because of withdrawals: a quarter of a million cases being struck off the roll; nearly 100 000 cases a non-appearance of the accused; and, some 150 000 cases where warrants of arrest were issued.”
The bottom line is the courts ”are not well run”, she said.
Among the reasons for such ”dismal performance” are the large number of vacant posts in the department and the ”mismanagement” of the salaries of legal professionals within the department.
”The huge increases given to magistrates last year has led to large numbers of prosecutors (the usual source of magistrates) deserting for the bench because of the disparity.”
The department has identified the need to do something about this, but seems to have no plan in place, she said.
Facelift for courts
Courts located in townships and rural areas will soon receive a facelift as part of the department’s moves to dismantle apartheid-inspired lower courts, MPs heard. Introducing her budget-vote debate, Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla said many of the courts located in the townships and rural areas fail to serve the needs of the poor.
”In terms of the current areas of jurisdiction, most of the magistrate’s courts in the rural and former black townships exercise limited jurisdiction, have no staff or budget of their own, and are entirely dependent on the main courts areas to deliver essential justice services,” she said.
Mabandla said the current arrangement should not be allowed to exist as it has a negative effect on the poor and vulnerable living in rural areas, who are compelled to travel long distances to the cities in search of justice.
”In reversing this practice, we have set ourselves a target of conferring, in this financial year, 24 of the 90 branch courts countrywide with their own areas of jurisdiction to hear all types of cases and provide a full range of services within their own locality,” she said.
The move, Mabandla said, will see resources, currently concentrated in main courts, rationalised to provide adequate capacity at the 24 branch courts. Other courts, such as those located at farms and police stations, will also be restructured.
”As part of the review of the lower courts, the department will substitute the periodical courts established on farms, police stations and prisons with mobile service centres within communities,” she said. — Sapa