Speech by Michael Masutha, MP (Adv.), Minister of Justice and Correctional Services on the occasion of Justice Budget Vote speech at the National Council of Provinces
Honourable Chairperson,
Honourable Premiers,
Honourable Ministers,
Deputy Ministers of Justice and Correctional Services,
Chairperson of Select Committee on Security and Justice,
Honourable Members of the National Council of Provinces,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is with great pleasure that I introduce into this esteemed House the budget debate of the departments of Justice and Constitutional Development and Correctional Services. Today’s budget statements encapsulate our unequivocal commitment to a transformed and accessible justice system that caries the hopes and aspirations of the people of South Africa.
Honourable Chairperson,
Allow me to first reflect on the budget of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. Central to the transformation of the justice system is the need to accelerate the transformation of the Magistrates Courts, establish a judicial system that reflect the racial and gender demographics of the South African society and strengthen the office of the State Attorney so as to restore confidence in handling litigation for and on behalf of the State.
We continue to work together with Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster and other stakeholders in addressing the logjams in the justice value chain. Requiring immediate intervention is the complete overhaul of the Criminal Procedure Act and the reform of the civil justice system in order to address the frailties in the justice value chain.
In undertaking these reforms, we will invite public submissions and papers in respect of the various aspects of the justice system that require consideration from which we will develop necessary policy and legislative interventions that will be discussed at a colloquium that we plan to hold later in the year.
The major strides we have made for example with regard to the Constitution Seventeenth Amendment Act and the Superior Courts Act were the culmination of a policy dialogue at which diverse views of the various actors in the sector were canvassed.
We have successfully implemented the rationalisation of magisterial districts in the Gauteng and North West with effect from 1 December 2014 and have commenced with the rollout of the project to the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.
In the latter provinces this exercise will culminate in the official opening of the Limpopo Division of the High Court earmarked for later this year and Mpumalanga Division planned for early in 2016. By aligning magisterial districts to municipal boundaries we are turning municipalities into nodal service points through which justice-related services are delivered as part of the basket of services delivered by various spheres of government at local level.
There is great potential to increase access to justice through the use of mediation and other forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms. It is encouraging to note that since the launch of the court-annexed mediation programme in February this year 57 civil disputes have been dealt with through mediation at the 12 court sites which have been designated as court-mediation pilot sites. We intend to expand the mediation services to additional courts and this will happen as soon as we have built sufficient capacity at the courts to carry-out the mediation function.
We have also published a policy on the use of official languages in terms of which services will henceforth be provided in indigenous languages predominant in the province concerned over and above the English and Afrikaans languages.
We are confident that over time we will make inroads into extending the use of indigenous languages as languages of record in the courts and the transformation of the LLB curriculum to include an Indigenous language as one of the prescribed courses of study.
The maintenance turn-around strategy continues to yield positive results. Through the use of Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), we have eased the burden of beneficiaries of having to commute to courts to collect maintenance payments. Through the system their payments are transferred directly in their bank accounts. In the financial year 2014/15, a total of R1.97 billion was paid to maintenance beneficiaries through the EFT.
We have also enhanced the management of the Guardian’s Fund and improved our service particularly to orphans who are dependent on the proceeds of the Fund for their livelihood. In 2012/13, government made 37 000 payments totalling R1, 006 billion to Guardian’s Fund beneficiaries, the majority of whom are children.
Honourable Members,
Let me allude briefly to the need for the transformation of the traditional courts which still operate under the regulatory framework of the apartheid era, that was enacted in 1927. We cannot allow this to drag on any longer as people continue to suffer the debilitating consequences of the system which is not only of their making, but research also shows that the system was manipulated to serve the interests of the colonial and apartheid regimes.
It is in this context that we have stepped-up efforts to transform the traditional courts to bring them in conformity with the Constitution. The Traditional Courts Bill is key to this endeavor. We have commenced with the processes of revising the Bill with a view to incorporating the wealth of submissions and commentary garnered during the lengthy public participation process.
We are working steadfastly with our fellow Department of Traditional Affairs to bring these long overdue legislative reforms to finality and hope to introduce the revised Bill into Parliament during the 2015/16 financial year.
The performance outputs at the courts attest to the tireless efforts by the various components of the criminal justice system in rooting-out criminality. The National Prosecuting Authority continues to maintain high conviction rates, for example in the previous financial year it recorded conviction rates of 91% in the High Courts, 76,6% in Regional Courts, 69 percent in sexual offences courts.
The on-going institutional reforms within the Judiciary also contribute to the inroads we continue to make in the justice system. The Provincial Efficiency Enhancement Committees established by the Chief Justice in every province play an important role in improving court efficiency.
Honourable Chairperson,
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has been allocated a budget of R16,9 billion for which we are thankful, though we feel it could have been more in view of the competing demands facing the justice sector. Of this budget allocation R5,5 billion is allocated to Court Services, R3, 4 billion is for the NPA and R2, 2 billion for the South African Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector and Legal Aid South Africa.
The department’s capital infrastructure projects accounts for the biggest budget of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development with a total of R661million allocated for the 2015/16 financial year. This will go a long way towards addressing the infrastructure backlog in order to bring services to people living in far-flung areas and rural villages who still endure the hardship of travelling to far towns and cities to access the courts and other service points such as the office of the Master.
Let me now turn to the Department of Correctional Services.
The management of remand detainees has improved, with the reduction of this sector of inmates to 27% of the 159,000 inmates in our custody. We have performed better than the international trend of 32% of the world’s 10.2 million inmates. Our efforts continue to gain traction, as the number of remand detainees was reduced by 4,291 within the last three years, of which 53% was achieved in 2014/15 financial alone. In addition, we have provided 56 remand detention centres with new uniform to address the challenges of security and hygiene.
Our collaboration to implement the Child Justice Act has also brought desirable outcomes, as the number of children in custody as remand detainees was significantly reduced from 497 to 129, while sentenced children were reduced from 538 to 243 over the past six years.
Of our parolee and probationer caseload of 71,623, 98% of the 51, 634 parolees and 96% of the 18, 545 probationers, complied with their conditions. These results were brought about by, among others, the creation of a dedicated Social Reintegration Branch, and the decentralization of monitoring structures that include community corrections satellite offices and service points.
We are continuing to exploit technological advancements, to help build a South Africa where all people are, and feel, safe. One such innovation is the introduction of the Electronic Monitoring System. Since its launch in July 2014, the system has cumulatively covered 1,009 persons through tagging and de-tagging of ex-inmates, parolees and persons awaiting-trial.
We have also introduced an audio-visual system in November 2014, which links the 53 Correctional Supervision and Parole Board offices and Head Office, to aid, and enhance, victim participation in parole hearings. This is another example of greater integration of the criminal justice system’s functions, as funding of this innovation came from the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA), which contributed R10.2 million.
Members of this House have persistently raised issues of cellphone jamming and curbing the smuggling of contraband into our facilities. I am glad to inform this house that body cavity scanners are being installed in 7 correctional centres to help prevent and limit these security breaches. The Gauteng Region has two centres while all other regions have one center each with body cavity scanners.
All new facilities are fitted with cellphone detectors, which pick up cellphone signals within a few meter radius and alert operators in a control room, thereby helping our staff to root out these unauthorized items. The days of inmates using cellphones, to advance criminal activities from behind bars, are numbered.
Correctional Services considers health care as an integrated responsibility, which cuts across many institutions. We are partnering with the Department of Health to execute a comprehensive onslaught against TB. Thus far, our TB cure rate is at 83% and we are working towards attaining the targeted 90:90:90 testing, treatment and cure rates by 2019/20.
We had declared in this house a few years back to solve the challenge of archaic and obsolete equipment in our food, furniture and other production areas. Our investment of R25.5 million, to recapitalise agriculture and production workshops, has helped the department to exceed its targets in chicken, egg, fruit and red meat production. Surplus products have been distributed amongst communities surrounding our facilities to support the government’s war on poverty.
We believe that corruption is the biggest threat to the effective implementation of our strategies, in order to ensure a safer South Africa. We have achieved a 95% success rate in disciplinary inquiries instituted in 2014/15 financial as a result of which 19 officials were dismissed. We believe that this demonstrates our zero tolerance towards corruption within and outside of Correctional Services.
We will also run 24 workshops to train officials on ethics and to strengthen our collective vigilance against fraud, corruption and serious maladministration. The overarching objective is to ensure that all the principles of good governance are upheld and protected by each and every one of our officials. One of the indicators of progress is our reduction of expenditure on consultants, which went down by 55% over the last six years.
From a total of R170.5 million spent in 2009/10 on consultants, the department has spent only R76.8 million in 2013/14, which translates to a R93.8 million reduction. We are also delighted to report that the audit committee is operating at full capacity, following the appointment of four members with the requisite expertise.
A number of strategic positions, including that of National Commissioner and Chief Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Management, will be filled soon, as recommendations have been made for appointments. Filling other strategic positions, including the Regional Commissioner of the Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West regions, is receiving priority attention.
We are exploring a possibility of reducing the period for expungement of criminal records for ex- offenders especially for minor and non-violent crimes as part of enhancing offender re-integration programme. I will seek the views of my colleagues in the Justice Crime Prevention and Security cluster (JCPS) regarding this matter. The outstanding matter of political prisoners is being expedited. We expect to finalise this matter within this financial year.
We are also reviewing the parole policy and system in order to step up the recruitment and retention of skilled professionals, improve victim participation in parole hearings, and train board members to, among others, implement offence specific risk assessment tools that will improve the quality of decisions that our correctional supervision and parole boards take.
The Department of Correctional Services has been allocated a total of R 20.618 billion during this financial year, a nominal increase of 4.5% from the previous financial year. Overall, the Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration programmes will receive a marked increase in budget allocation over the MTEF period both growing at 22.6% and 18.6% respectively.
On the other hand, the Incarceration and Administration programmes will respectively receive 10.4% and 13.1% over the MTEF period, which in real terms reflects a decline of the net allocations. We have done so deliberately as part of increasing our investment to implement the ideals of the White Paper on Corrections in South Africa, particularly to improve rehabilitation.
As I conclude, let me convey our profound gratitude to the Chairperson and members of the Select Committee on Justice and Correctional Services for its continued support and guidance. Let me also thank my Deputy Ministers, the Honourable John Jeffery (MP) and Honourable Thabang Makwetla (MP), and the Heads of the Department and staff of the two Departments and Office of the Chief Justice for their profound support.
Thank you!
