Today the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) presented its annual performance report before the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development. The report reflected significant overall improvement in courts compared to the previous year, with 75% (30) of its performance indicators showing improvement.
Considering the performance against the targets, 24 (42.5%) of the indicators were achieved or exceeded, 8 (17.5%) marginally below target and 20 (40%) were not achieved. The NPA set stretch targets for the year under review that ranged between 2-100% increases (average of about 7%) on the actual performance of the previous year.
High conviction rates were maintained throughout all courts, at an average conviction rate of 89.9%. The number of sentences of 10 years or more increased with 11% (676) compared to the previous year, which reflects that more serious crimes that call for heavy sentences were successfully convicted.
Plea and sentence agreements1 continue to be a crucial way of delivering justice efficiently. A safety guard in the Criminal Procedure Act is that where a presiding officer is not satisfied that the sentence proposed is just, the court will not accept the agreement and order the trial to proceed. Plea bargains are used more often for people who are already in custody awaiting trial for longer than two years, as well as on cases that could take long to finalise.
During the year under review 1 277 plea and sentence agreements were successfully concluded, comprising of 7 439 counts and in 414 (34%) of the cases, sentences of direct imprisonment were imposed. This represents an increase of 92.6% from the 663 agreements concluded during the previous year and only 0.4% of the 323 390 verdict cases where accused are prepared to agree to convictions and sentences, reflecting that the majority of these cases are taken to trial in court.
The majority of plea bargains occur in the regional courts where most of the accused are represented by the Legal Aid attorneys. This defies the notion that the Plea Bargain process has being hijacked by the rich to escape imprisonment.
The use of Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanisms (ADRM), which include informal mediations and diversion of appropriate cases continued on an upward trend, with 143 410 cases resolved in this manner compared to 132 695 in the previous year. It is important to consider this trend in the context of declining court utilisation and efficiency2 for criminal cases due to challenges related to case flow management, impacting negatively on the speedy finalisation of cases.
Due to this decline in finalisation of verdict cases, the prosecutors are relying more on alternative measures to reduce trial cases. Further, the lack of joint and/or integrated training for JCPS officials focused on improving court performance and/or service delivery. There are however interventions in place to address these challenges and to improve court efficiency, which are spearheaded by the Chief Justice.
During the year under review, there was a decision taken for the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit (SCCU) to focus only on the apex cases of a complex nature which take longer to finalise, and the less complex matters addressed by the general stream of prosecutions. This explains the reduction in the number of cases (639 compared to 780 in the previous year) that were finalised with a conviction rate of 92.9%.
The Office for Witness Protection achieved a remarkable 10 year record of no witnesses harmed in the witness protection programme. The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) froze assets of 23 persons during the year, 15% above the target of 20, and 229% above the previous years. Significantly, the value of the orders was R346m, 73% above the target of R200m and 140% above the previous year, bringing the cumulative total to R1bn, against a target of R855m.
The conviction rate on sexual offences improved from 60.7% in 2011/12 to 61.03%. The recent re-establishment of the Sexual Offences Courts is encouraging to ongoing fight against rape and other sexual offences. The first such court officially launched by the Minister of Justice & Constitutional Development recently is in Butterworth, out of which there was a significant conviction in a case of murder and rape, where the accused was given 21 life terms.
An unprecedented achievement for the NPA is the clean audit, quite significant after previous unqualified findings and even a disclaimer in 2007/08. This reflects the positive results yielded by the concerted efforts in improving governance and administration that the organisation has put in place. It is also significant that the amount of invoices paid later than 30 days was reduces from R38m previously, to only R609 000. This continues to be work in progress in the right direction.
Note: The NPA’s annual report 2012/13 and the full presentation to the Portfolio Committee are available on the website: www.npa.gov.za.
Notes for the media
1. The breakdown of direct Imprisonment imposed in plea and sentence
agreements is as follows:
- Less than 5 years direct imprisonment = 12%
- 5 - 9 years direct imprisonment = 15%
- 10 - 14 years direct imprisonment = 4%
- More than 15 years direct imprisonment = 3%
2. Court utilisation and efficiency - the NPA monitors actual court hours and court days to ascertain efficient utilisation of courts, which is a good indicator of productivity. Indicators should however be viewed holistically and not in isolation. Court utilisation relates to the efficient use of courts.
A clear comparison can be drawn between the decline in the use of courts and a similar downward trend in the finalisation of verdict cases. The annual report reflects that more court days were used in the period under review, but fewer court hours are being utilised which indicates the inefficient use of courts for criminal cases. The NPA does not monitor the use of courts for civil/family cases which might indicate a different picture for court utilisation.
Enquiries:
Bulelwa Makeke
Executive Manager: Communications
Cell: 084 702 5617
Email: media@npa.gov.za
