Community members of Atteridgeville, Tsakane, Sebokeng, Secunda, Stilfontein and Orkney will now be able to access justice services right at their door steps following the proclamation of six branch courts as service courts by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Jeff Radebe.
The Programme on the Conversion of Branch Courts into proper full services courts entails the upgrading of the physical court infrastructure, increasing human resource capacity, allocating specific areas of jurisdiction for the courts, increasing their jurisdiction to provide services they were historically not designed to offer, and proclaiming the new courts as self standing Magistrates’ Courts.
Branch Courts in their historical sense are not capable of providing dignified services to local communities as they were intended solely for hearing of limited criminal cases. The people living in these communities had to commute to outside towns and cities to access courts for purposes of obtaining redress in respect of civil disputes, accessing small claims courts, claim spousal and child maintenance and deceased estates.
With effect from today, 15 May 2013, the six Branch Courts, which are Atteridgeville, Tsakane, Sebokeng, Secunda, Stilfontein, will change their status from that Branch Court into fully fledged independent Magistrate’s Courts and will no longer depend on the courts in their neighbourhood towns to render some of the services that they could not render in the past. A total of 24 Branch Courts across the country have been revamped and are operating as full services’ courts. The other outstanding 65 Branch Courts will be upgraded gradually in line with the vision set out in the National Development Plan.
This initiative is aimed at bringing more services to the people and enables the courts to deal with issues that directly affect communities. The process of upgrading Branch Courts and converting them into full services’ courts seeks to reduce travelling costs and time in the spirit of bringing justice closer to the people.
These extended services further advances the Department’s commitment to ensure accessible justice services for all. Communities in these areas are encouraged to take advantage of these extended services to resolve legal disputes.
Enquiries:
Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga
Spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
Cell: 0836418141
