Remarks by the Hon AC Nel, MP, Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development at a Strategic Planning Workshop of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, 2 October 2025
1. Introduction: The constitution as our compass
I request that we all rise, whether in body or in spirit, to recite the Preamble to the Constitution of the Republic.
We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to
- Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
- Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
- Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
- Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.
May God protect our people.
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso.
God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa.
Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.
The Preamble to the Constitution sets out the tasks entrusted to us: to heal the divisions of the past; to build a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights; to lay the foundations of a democratic and open society where every citizen is equally protected by law; to improve the quality of life of all and free the potential of each person; and to build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.
These are constitutional imperatives, and they resonate directly with the work of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
For us, this means ensuring that justice is not an abstract promise but a daily reality in the lives of South Africans.
It means that our courts, our legal services, our victim-support systems, and our broader justice programmes must serve to break down the legacy of inequality, to protect rights, to safeguard freedoms, and to provide remedies when those rights are violated.
Every backlog cleared, every case finalised without delay, every victim supported, and every official who acts with integrity is part of giving effect to the Preamble.
This Strategic Planning Workshop is therefore more than an administrative exercise. It is an opportunity to test our policies and programmes against the yardstick of the Constitution’s vision.
The Preamble reminds us that our work must both reflect and advance democratic values, social justice, and human dignity.
Our challenge is to translate those guiding principles into concrete priorities, measurable outcomes, and visible improvements in service delivery over the next five years.
2. Context
As we plan for the next five years, we cannot do so in isolation from the broader currents shaping our society and the world around us.
Across the globe, we are witnessing the rise of populism, authoritarian nationalism, and anti-constitutional movements.
In many countries, populist leaders seek to erode judicial independence, weaken checks and balances, and undermine human rights in the name of expediency.
These trends pose a direct threat not only to domestic stability but also to the international rules-based order that has underpinned global cooperation and peace since the mid-20th century.
The weakening of international law, disregard for multilateral institutions, and the normalisation of attacks on democratic values all create a more volatile and uncertain world.
For South Africa, the implications are twofold.
- First, we must defend and strengthen our own constitutional democracy, ensuring that our judiciary remains independent, our legal frameworks resilient, and our governance transparent and accountable.
- Second, we must take our place in the family of nations as a country that champions the rule of law, constitutionalism, and human rights.
Our justice system must serve our people and stand as a beacon of what a society can achieve when it grounds itself in a democratic Constitution.
The year 2026 will mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of our Constitution.
This milestone offers us a unique opportunity to popularise the Constitution, to educate citizens about its values and protections, and to recommit to its vision of a united, democratic South Africa.
The Strategic Plan must therefore include a deliberate focus on constitutional literacy, civic education, and public engagement.
We must seize this anniversary as a moment to remind every South African — young and old, urban and rural — that the Constitution is not a document for lawyers alone.
It is the people’s charter, the foundation of our freedoms, and the roadmap for our shared future.
Our Strategic Plan must be informed not only by policy frameworks, but also by the way citizens experience insecurity, inequality, and injustice, and by the global mega-trends that are reshaping governance everywhere.
Three resources provide invaluable insights here: the Indlulamithi South Africa Scenarios 2035, the Ipsos What Worries the World survey, and the Ipsos Global Trends report.
Together, they sharpen the choices before us and underline the urgency of our work.
2.1 Indlulamithi Scenarios 2035 – South Africa’s Possible Futures
The Indlulamithi scenarios sketch three possible futures for our country:
- Hadeda Home: a divided and recriminating nation, where inequality and exclusion deepen social fractures.
- Vulture Culture: a desperate society plagued by corruption, crime, and predatory networks that hollow out state institutions.
- Weaver Work: a cooperative and inclusive society, where institutions regain public trust and communities and the state work together for a shared future.
Across these scenarios, the justice system emerges as a decisive factor.
If the justice sector is weak, unaccountable, and inaccessible, South Africa risks sliding into Vulture Culture.
This would mean a justice system overwhelmed by corruption, paralysed by inefficiency, and unable to protect citizens from violence or abuse.
But if the justice system is capable, independent, and people-centred, it can underpin Weaver Work — helping to knit together the social fabric, restore trust, and create the conditions for growth and cohesion.
For our Department, the implication is clear: our performance is central to the trajectory of our country.
The Strategic Plan we adopt today must explicitly position the justice system as an enabler of the cooperative future — one that is accessible, fair, and effective.
2.2 Ipsos What Worries the World – Public Anxieties We Must Respond To
The latest Ipsos survey tells us what ordinary people across 30 countries identify as their greatest concerns.
In September 2025, the top global worries were crime and violence (32%), inflation (30%), poverty and inequality (29%), corruption (28%), and unemployment (28%).
These figures mirror, almost exactly, the pressures that South Africans feel most acutely.
In fact, Ipsos data shows that South Africa is among the most pessimistic societies in the world, with a majority (78%) believing the country is on the wrong track.
The following are the areas of concern ranked in order of greatest to least concern:
| Concern | Percent | Change 1 month | Change: 12 months |
| Unemployment | 65% | = | -1 |
| Crime/violence | 58% | +6 | +4 |
| Corruption | 48% | -7 | +4 |
| Poverty/inequality | 30% | -3 | -3 |
| Inflation | 21% | +4 | +2 |
| Immigration control | 16% | +1 | +2 |
| Health | 14% | -3 | -1 |
| Taxes | 11% | -1 | +2 |
| Education | 10% | -3 | -5 |
| Climate change | 5% | +1 | -4 |
For the justice sector, these results are a sobering reminder that we stand at the heart of what people fear most.
- When citizens worry about crime and violence, they look to our courts and victim-support services.
- When they worry about corruption, they judge us on whether we can hold the powerful accountable and ensure clean governance.
- When they worry about inequality, they look to whether our justice system is accessible to all, not just to those who can afford expensive lawyers.
The implication is that our Strategic Plan cannot be inward-looking. It must respond directly to these anxieties.
It must show, in practical and measurable terms, how the Department will reduce backlogs, strengthen accountability, and make justice more affordable and accessible. Otherwise, public trust will continue to erode.
2.3 Ipsos Global Trends 2025 – Navigating an Uneasy Decade
The Ipsos Global Trends report frames the 2020s as an “uneasy decade” marked by geopolitical instability, rapid technological disruption, and declining trust in institutions. Three dynamics are particularly relevant for us:
- The erosion of trust in institutions: Citizens across the world are retreating from formal institutions and placing their trust in smaller, local networks. For the Department, this means we cannot take legitimacy for granted. Every interaction in a courtroom, every outcome from a Masters’ Office, every delay or postponement either builds or erodes trust. Building legitimacy requires openness, responsiveness, and consistent service delivery.
- Technological disruption: Artificial intelligence and digital systems are transforming societies, but they come with risks of exclusion, data insecurity, and misuse. For justice, this is a double-edged sword. Digital platforms can speed up processes, reduce backlogs, and expand access. But if they are unstable, poorly protected, or not user-friendly, they can deepen frustration and distrust. Our Strategic Plan must therefore balance innovation with resilience and inclusivity.
- Nouveau Nihilism and disengagement: Ipsos identifies a growing cynicism, particularly among young people, who are disillusioned with government and retreating into individualism. For justice, this poses a danger: if people stop believing that the system can deliver fairness, they may disengage, turn to informal networks, or even resort to violence. Our task is to demonstrate, through delivery and fairness, that the justice system works for everyone, including the most marginalised.
2.4 Implications for the DoJ&CD Strategic Plan
Taken together, these insights underline three imperatives for our work over the next five years:
- Put prevention and protection at the centre: Crime and violence are people’s top fears. Our Strategic Plan must embed the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy into all programmes, ensuring that victims are protected, communities are supported, and justice institutions help stop violence before it happens.
- Build integrity and accountability: Corruption is a top global and national worry. We must model clean governance in our own operations, improve transparency in the Masters’ Offices, manage state litigation effectively, and demonstrate that no one is above the law.
- Rebuild trust through access and service quality: In an era of declining confidence in institutions, every interaction matters. Courts must be user-friendly, delays must be reduced, digital systems must work reliably, and communication with the public must be clear and respectful.
In short, the scenarios and surveys remind us that the justice system is not peripheral. It is central to whether South Africa becomes a society of recrimination, a society of desperation, or a society of cooperation.
Our choices in this Strategic Plan will help determine which future unfolds.
3. Setting the frame: a justice system for a capable, ethical, developmental state
As we begin this Strategic Planning Workshop, it is important that we remind ourselves that the transformation of the justice system is not an isolated project.
It is central to the broader national goal of building a capable, ethical, and developmental state, as articulated from the Reconstruction and Development Plan of 1994, through Justice Vision 2000, the National Development Plan of 2011, and reaffirmed most recently in the Statement of Intent of the Government of National Unity and the Medium-Term Development Plan of 2024.
- A capable state is one that possesses the institutional strength, professional skills, and organisational integrity to deliver justice services that are efficient, predictable, and accessible to all.
In the justice sector this means well-managed courts, reliable case-flow systems, adequately staffed registries, and infrastructure that functions even in rural and marginalised communities.
Capability requires not only resources but professionalisation, technology, and a culture of continuous improvement.
- An ethical state is one that conducts its affairs with transparency, fairness, and accountability.
For the justice system this means a judiciary and legal profession that is independent, diverse, and committed to constitutional values; a public service that is free of corruption and abuse of power; and a state legal apparatus that manages litigation and advisory services with integrity and in the public interest.
It also requires that communities can hold the justice system to account through accessible complaint mechanisms, open processes, and visible responsiveness to public concerns.
- A developmental state is one that places justice at the heart of inclusive growth, social cohesion, and community safety.
In our context, this means ensuring that access to justice is not a privilege but a right, that women, children, and rural communities experience the law as a source of protection rather than exclusion, and that justice institutions actively contribute to the reduction of poverty, inequality, and crime.
The justice system must therefore be proactive in fighting corruption, protecting human rights, addressing gender-based violence, and working with communities in prevention and problem-solving.
In short, the justice system we plan for today must be one that inspires confidence, strengthens the rule of law, and enables our society to address its deepest challenges—whether crime and corruption, inequality and gender injustice, or the building of safer communities.
It must be a system that completes the journey mapped by Justice Vision 2000, that operationalises the prevention agenda of the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy, and that fulfils the developmental priorities of the Medium-Term Development Plan.
In the 2025 State of the Nation Address, the President set the tone: affirming a Government of National Unity and a five-year MTDP; and committing to a second wave of reforms in energy, water, freight logistics, SOE governance, skills and infrastructure to lift growth above 3%.
He underscored a capable state (professional public service, local-government renewal, digital public infrastructure), jobs and inclusion(employment stimulus, enterprise support, transformation fund), social protection and NHI preparedness, and safety, justice and integrity (expanded detective capacity, smarter policing, GBVF response, permanent anti-corruption directorate, whistle-blower protections).
The message for DoJ&CD is unambiguous: justice institutions must anchor public trust and deliver measurable results that make the MTDP real in people’s daily lives.
The MTDP’s three priorities are clear and mutually reinforcing:
(1) drive inclusive growth and job creation;
(2) reduce poverty and tackle the high cost of living; and
(3) build a capable, ethical, developmental state.
For the justice sector, this translates into faster, more predictable courts; a survivor-centred response to GBV; visible anti-corruption outcomes; digital justice that works reliably; and accessible services in every district—especially for women, children, the poor and rural communities.
In short, justice delivery is not only a constitutional obligation; it is an economic and social enabler of the MTDP.
4. Guiding policy pillars—what they ask of us
Our foundational policy pillar is the Constitution of the Republic, which obliges us to heal the past, protect rights, and guarantee equality before the law. Building on this foundation, a series of policies since 1994 have provided a roadmap for the transformation of South Africa’s justice system.
- Reconstruction and Development Plan (1994)
The RDP demanded people-centred, participatory justice, calling for the dismantling of apartheid-era structures, expanded access to legal services, and alignment with constitutional values of equality and dignity. It still challenges us to measure success by whether the poor and vulnerable feel that justice is on their side. - Justice Vision 2000 (1997)
Justice Vision 2000 provided our sector with its first dedicated transformation blueprint.
It sought to unify eleven fragmented apartheid justice administrations into a single, legitimate Department of Justice, guided by the values of the Constitution.
Its goals were bold:
- To guarantee equal access to justice regardless of race, gender, status, or wealth.
- To establish efficient, service-oriented courts, with special attention to magistrates’ courts, where most South Africans experience justice.
- To professionalise court administration, separating judicial and administrative functions and introducing skilled managers.
- To build representative human resources, with targets for black, women and disabled staff in senior and professional ranks.
- To introduce modern case-flow management and IT systems, to reduce delays, corruption, and inefficiency.
- To involve communities through outreach, lay assessors, and alternative dispute resolution, ensuring justice is not distant or alien but part of everyday life.
Justice Vision 2000 remains a benchmark. We have made strides: the creation of the Office of the Chief Justice, expanded Equality and Sexual Offences Courts, and broader access through Small Claims and regional jurisdiction. Yet its central call for a justice system that is uniformly fast, inexpensive, and accountable remains unfinished. Today, our task is to complete the Justice Vision 2000 journey: to professionalise management in every courtroom, stabilise digital systems, eliminate backlogs, and ensure that rural and marginalised communities have the same quality of service as our metropolitan centres. - Gender Policy Statement (1999)
Mainstream gender across justice, protect women and children, and transform procurement and workforce equity. Its challenge is moving from policy commitments to lived realities, particularly in tackling GBV.
- Policy Framework on Traditional Justice (2008)
Recognised traditional courts but bound them to constitutional supremacy. It called for restorative justice, safeguards for women and children, harmonisation with magistrates’ courts, and accountability.
- National Development Plan (2011)
Framed justice as central to a capable, ethical state and safer communities. It asked for professionalised services, judicial independence, and justice that reduces poverty and inequality.
- Judicial Transformation Paper (2012)
Argued for a single judiciary and separation of court administration from executive control. Called for expanded judicial education, process reform, and faster adoption of a judiciary-led model.
- Framework on State Legal Services (2012)
Sought professional, cost-effective state litigation and advisory services. Called for transformed briefing patterns and use of legal spend to advance fairness and transformation.
- National Strategic Plan on GBVF (2020–2030)
A national compact with six pillars from prevention to survivor support. For DoJCD, it means accelerating survivor-centred justice, strengthening sexual offences courts, and ensuring that justice institutions are places of protection, not secondary trauma.
- Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy (2022)
Practical guide to crime reduction built on six pillars, including early intervention, victim support, safer design of spaces, and whole-of-society prevention. It asks us to make prevention—not punishment—the organising principle.
- GNU Statement of Intent (2024)
Reaffirmed constitutionalism, non-racialism, non-sexism, and accountable government. For justice, it demands leadership in professionalism, service delivery, and integrity.
- Medium-Term Development Plan (2024–2029)
Translates vision into action: inclusive growth, poverty reduction, and a capable, ethical state. For justice, it requires reform of the criminal justice system, fighting organised crime and corruption, and measurable alignment of all programmes with developmental outcomes.
5. Progress since 1994 — especially against justice vision 2000
Since 1994, the justice system has undergone profound transformation. When we began this journey, the system we inherited was deeply fragmented, racially exclusive, and widely distrusted by the majority of South Africans.
- Eleven separate justice administrations reflected the geography of apartheid, with services concentrated in white urban centres and denied to rural and black communities.
- Justice Vision 2000 provided us with a roadmap to dismantle this legacy and replace it with a single, efficient, legitimate, and representative justice system, aligned with the values of the new Constitution.
- Looking back from 2025, we can say with confidence that significant structural gains have been made.
- The Department of Justice was integrated into a single national entity.
- The Superior Courts Act of 2013 rationalised the structure of the High Courts and laid the foundation for a unified judiciary.
- The establishment of the Office of the Chief Justice gave institutional expression to judicial independence and strengthened the governance of courts.
- We also extended the jurisdiction of the regional courts to cover civil matters and divorce, thus easing the burden on the High Courts and bringing justice closer to the people.
- We have also expanded access to justice in line with Justice Vision 2000’s priorities.
- The roll-out of Small Claims Courts has created a simple, affordable mechanism for resolving everyday disputes, especially for the poor.
- Equality Courts have been designated nationwide to enforce the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, ensuring that rights to dignity and equality are actively protected.
- We re-established Sexual Offences Courts with updated standards to provide survivor-centred justice for victims of gender-based violence.
- Legal Aid South Africa has been strengthened to ensure that even the most vulnerable can exercise their constitutional right to legal representation.
- On representation and equity, there has been clear progress.
- The judiciary and legal profession are far more diverse today than they were in 1994, with growing numbers of black and women judges, magistrates, and practitioners.
- The appointment of Chief Justice Mandisa Maya marks a historic milestone in gender transformation.
- Within the Department, employment equity has advanced steadily, even though challenges remain.
- Human rights culture and community participation, another key goal of Justice Vision 2000, have also developed.
- Lay assessors were introduced in criminal courts to bring community perspectives into decision-making.
- Public education on constitutional rights has become a regular feature of our work, and civil society organisations have become active partners in areas such as gender-based violence, children’s rights, and community justice initiatives.
At the same time, we must be candid about the unfinished business of Justice Vision 2000.
- Despite progress in rationalisation, the geographic boundaries of High Court jurisdictions remain incomplete, and access to superior courts is still uneven across provinces. Infrastructure backlogs persist, especially in rural and township areas, where court buildings are overcrowded or poorly maintained.
- ICT modernisation, which Justice Vision 2000 identified as essential, remains partial: while Integrated Case Management Systems (ICMS) and e-filing platforms exist, they are not yet stable, fully integrated, or universally accessible.
- Recent cyberattacks and system outages have highlighted both the potential and the vulnerability of our digital justice environment.
- Equally concerning are the persistent delays and backlogs in our courts.
- Case postponements, shortage of interpreters, uneven availability of clerks and registrars, and outdated case-flow practices mean that justice is often delayed — and as the old adage reminds us, delayed justice is denied justice.
- The Masters’ Offices, central to administering deceased estates and guardians’ funds, continue to experience serious backlogs and inefficiencies, despite the roll-out of ICMS.
- Perhaps most critically, we have not yet achieved the uniform quality of justice services across the country that Justice Vision 2000 envisaged.
- Urban centres tend to offer relatively faster, better-resourced services, while rural communities face longer delays, fewer resources, and greater barriers to access.
- The reality is that for too many South Africans, especially the poor, women, children, and people in remote areas, justice still feels distant, intimidating, or unreliable.
In sum, our progress since 1994 has been substantial and real.
We have built new institutions, broadened access, diversified the profession, and given life to constitutional rights in ways unthinkable under apartheid.
But we must admit that the central promise of Justice Vision 2000 — to create a justice system that is fast, effective, inexpensive, people-centred, and trusted by all — remains only partially fulfilled.
The unfinished agenda is clear: complete rationalisation, stabilise and expand digital justice, eliminate backlogs, professionalise court management, and ensure that every community experiences justice of the same quality, regardless of geography or circumstance.
As we look ahead to the next five years, the Department’s Strategic Plan must move beyond broad commitments and translate our long-standing policy frameworks into measurable outcomes.
It must be ambitious enough to complete the unfinished business of Justice Vision 2000, yet pragmatic enough to align with the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy (2022), the Medium-Term Development Plan (2024–2029), and the Statement of Intent of the Government of National Unity (2024).
Single Judiciary and Judiciary-led Court Administration
Another important dimension of our strategic planning is the country’s decision to proceed towards a judiciary-led court administration model, as signalled in the National Development Plan and subsequent policy discussions.
This is a historic shift in the governance of the courts, with profound implications for the Department’s role and structure.
At its core, the judiciary-led model affirms the principle that the judiciary must be institutionally independent, not only in its decisions but also in its administration.
It means that over time, the responsibility for the day-to-day management of court budgets, human resources, facilities, and information systems will move from the Department to the judiciary itself, under the leadership of the Office of the Chief Justice.
This is consistent with international best practice, where judicial independence is protected not only by constitutional guarantees but by real control over the functioning of courts.
For the Department, this transition does not diminish our role — rather, it redefines it. Our mandate will increasingly focus on:
- Policy and legislative development: crafting the laws and frameworks that underpin the justice system as a whole.
- Oversight and support: ensuring that judicial administration is properly resourced, accountable, and aligned with constitutional values and national priorities.
- Justice services beyond the courts: strengthening areas such as the Masters’ Offices, Legal Aid South Africa, state legal services, traditional justice, and community dispute resolution — which remain core responsibilities of the Department.
- Cross-cutting leadership: driving whole-of-government initiatives such as the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy, victim support programmes, and inter-sectoral coordination across the criminal justice cluster.
This transition also carries practical challenges that must be addressed in our Strategic Plan.
- We will need to manage the realignment of budgets, personnel, and assets between the Department and the Office of the Chief Justice with care, ensuring that service delivery is not disrupted.
- We must establish clear accountability mechanisms so that while the judiciary manages its own affairs, Parliament and the public can still exercise appropriate oversight.
- And we must ensure that the judiciary has the administrative skills and systems required to take on this expanded role effectively.
Ultimately, the move to a judiciary-led model is not a loss for the Department — it is an opportunity to clarify our role, sharpen our focus, and strengthen the entire justice system.
By supporting this transition with professionalism and foresight, we can help to secure both the independence of the courts and the effectiveness of the broader justice system.
The central question is: how do we ensure that the justice system becomes a backbone of a capable, ethical, and developmental state?
7. Call to action
As we conclude this session, let us remind ourselves why we are here.
The transformation of the justice system is not simply about internal reforms, new policies, or modern technology.
It is about building a society where every South African — whether rich or poor, rural or urban, man or woman, child or elder — can live with dignity, security, and confidence that the law will protect them. It is about giving substance to the promise of our Constitution.
We have behind us three decades of hard work.
- We have dismantled the fragmented apartheid-era administrations and replaced them with a single Department of Justice.
- We have diversified our judiciary and legal profession.
- We have created specialised courts, broadened legal aid, and taken significant steps to integrate traditional justice within the constitutional order.
- We have begun the digital transformation of our systems.
These are achievements that matter, and they should not be overlooked.
But we must also be honest: our journey is not yet complete.
- Justice Vision 2000’s call for a justice system that is fast, effective, inexpensive, and people-centred remains only partially fulfilled.
- Backlogs persist, digital platforms are still unstable, and communities in rural and township areas continue to feel underserved.
- Victims of gender-based violence still struggle to receive the protection and support they deserve.
- Corruption and organised crime still erode public trust.
The challenge before us is therefore clear. Over the next five years, we must complete the unfinished business.
- We must stabilise and expand our digital justice systems, eliminate backlogs, professionalise court management, and build prevention into the DNA of our work.
- We must place victims and communities at the centre of the justice system, ensuring that their voices are heard and their needs are met.
- We must align every programme, budget, and performance indicator with the priorities of the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy and the Medium-Term Development Plan.
- This requires discipline in planning, boldness in leadership, and honesty in measurement.
- It requires us to build partnerships with civil society, local government, traditional leaders, and the private sector, because justice cannot be delivered by the state alone.
- Above all, it requires a recommitment from each of us — as leaders, managers, and servants of the public — to live out the values of capability, ethics, and development in our daily work.
Let us, then, leave this workshop not with another plan on paper, but with a shared determination to deliver results that people can see and feel.
Let us act with urgency, with unity, and with conviction, so that by 2030 we can say with pride: South Africa has a justice system worthy of its Constitution, trusted by its people, and capable of supporting a democratic developmental state.
I thank you.
#GovZAUpdates
