16 November 2006
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development held a presentation
in Pretoria today, introducing Justice Information Technology (IT) related
innovations, designed to impact positively on service delivery.
From the perspective of the justice system, the first decade of democracy
has in a very major way been characterised by a focus on access to justice.
This makes sense in view of our history and the challenges still prevalent. It
is against this backdrop that we note the various developments in terms of IT
innovations which will assist in this second decade â an age of hope, on our
march for a more accessible, transformed and modernised justice system
The Department has identified modernisation as one of its strategic
objectives. The goal is to ensure that we are able to deliver justice services
simpler, better, faster, and in a cost-effective manner. Critical to our
modernisation programme are our e-Justice, human resource development
programmes and various projects designed to improve our financial
management.
Significant progresses have already been made in terms of the implementing
and roll-out of various applications.
The case roll management system that provides case flow management
information to the integrated case flow management centres has been converted
into an improved E-scheduler system. The main functionalities are the tracking
of cases and the measuring of the performance of the courts, at current
locations where the case flow management centres have been set up. The
E-Scheduler will in future be the official operational and statistical tool to
be utilised to measure and manage performance relating to case flow in the
court environment.
The Justice Management Information System (JMIS) is a centralised data
warehouse with an effective data capture mechanism which will ensure that both
criminal and civil case information is made available for management
information reporting, allowing the Department to meet their objective of
utilising daily, monthly and annual court statistics, ensuring efficient
utilisation of resources, cost efficiencies, and improved customer and employee
satisfaction.
JDAS is a financial and case management system that administers all monies
in trust within the Magistrate Courts and is aimed at improving the social and
economic standing of the people of South Africa especially those of women and
children who count under the poorest of the poor. This is achieved by ensuring
that monies kept in trust such as maintenance and bail is available and paid to
the beneficiaries in time to alleviate waiting in long queues and unnecessarily
travel to courts. JDAS as a system also provides business with information that
assist to manage these funds more effectively, efficiently, economically and
transparently.
The system is real time and will allow the court to be more service
orientated, thus providing a better service to the public. The court is thus
placed in a better position to mange its books and accounts more accurately and
more speedily, enabling the Department to provide better service delivery and
solutions to beneficiaries, such as maintenance beneficiaries.
Human Resource Service Benefits (HRSB) is an application designed to
facilitate the automated processing of service benefits online. This includes
the application for amongst others leave, service termination, overtime and
overtime claims as well as performance management. The result is that
applications are captured electronically and are automatically forwarded to the
relevant persons/divisions for approval/processing depending on the
application. This information is then stored electronically and can be
retrieved and audited at any given point in time. This process allows for
quicker turnaround times and enables the department to operate more efficiently
and effectively. Personal details of employers are now more accurately stored
and stats can be drawn with greater certainly of accuracy.
DJINI refers to the departmental intranet. It was created to improve
collaboration, communication, access to departmental information and knowledge
management within the department and is accessible to all DNS-connected
departmental officials. DJINI as a project also supports the Strategic Goal:
Enhancing Organisational Efficiency. DJINI was developed with Microsoft's
SharePoint programme and is 100% integratable with all the MS Office programs
(with best results obtained when used together with MS Office 2003).
In a vast developing country, it is important to for Government not to be
left behind in terms of innovative IT solutions, and to âgear itself for the
fast lane on the IT Hi-wayâ. That way we will ensure that we cater for all in
the spirit of Batho Pele, delivering justice services simpler, better, faster,
and in a cost-effective manner.
Enquiries:
Leslie Mashokwe
Cell: 083 278 8018
Issued by: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
16 November 2006
