Ladies and gentlemen
The budget vote speech is an important occasion in the calendar of national activities of government departments. It presents an opportunity for us to reflect on progress made on the undertakings made in the past and to map a way forward on future commitments. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development counts amongst those whose mandate and therefore its existence is expressly provided for in the Constitution.
I refer in this regard to Chapter 8 of the Constitution which deals with the courts and the administration of justice. Budget vote can therefore be neither an act of habit nor one whose origins are based merely on custom. For these reasons, it is important that all of us in the department must rally behind a common purpose of accelerating service delivery in line with the targets we set for ourselves and in accordance with the expectations of those we seek to serve.
I am now going to share with you the department’s road map or the programme of action for the financial year 2011/12. This programme is guided by our commitment to protect the principled values contained in our democratic Constitution. I will reflect on the programs and specific projects we have undertaken and those we will commence with, in order to improve the delivery of justice services and ensure the promotion and protection of human rights for all.
We are aware that in order to successfully implement our programs, we need to ensure effective financial management. In this regard, I have met with the Auditor-General in order to understand the magnitude of the audit compliance challenge and have impressed upon the Director-General and her management the urgency of improving financial management and compliance. To this end, I commit the department to a no audit qualification by financial year 2012/13.
Transformation of the Judicial System
We have made visible progress regarding the transformation of the judicial system and the legal fraternity, which are at the Apex of our transformation-orientated projects.
Cabinet’s decision to approve the revised Legal Practice Bill, following continued engagement with the legal profession on the initial Bill approved by Cabinet in May 2010 is an endorsement of the process we have undertaken. I am also confident that the certification process will be finalised in a matter of days to pave the way for the introduction of this important Bill to Parliament.
I have requested the Rules Board for Courts of Law to develop appropriate rules to facilitate the use of court-connected mediation and court connected arbitration programmes which have proven to be a huge success in foreign jurisdictions. We plan to pilot these programmes in a few selected courts before the end of this year as part of the Civil Justice Reform Programme sanctioned by Cabinet.
With regard to the gender and racial composition of the judiciary, of the total 230 judges in all the Superior Courts, there are only 60 women judges of which 22 are African.
These figures include the recent appointments made by the President after the Judicial Service Commission sitting in April 2011. Overall, there are 94 White and 136 Black judges.
Access to Justice
There are 9 on-going capital projects which have been carried forward from the 2010 meduim term expenditure framewok (MTEF), namely, the construction of new courts and the rehabilitation of existing courts, to meet the increased demands for court and office accommodation. Three new courts have been completed, Galeshewe (which has been opened), Colesburg, and Lutzville magistrates’ courts which will be opened soon.
The expansion of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein has also been completed which will be opened by the President in September this year. New courts which are under construction are the Katlehong and Ntuzuma magistrates' courts and the Polokwane High Court. A further 6 projects have been undertaken to expand offices based in Stanger, Thembalethu, Swellendam, Riversdale, Bredasdorp.
Projects in the planning phase include the new High Court in Mpumalanga, Magistrates Courts in Mamelodi, Port Shepstone, Richards Bay, Tshilwavhusiku and Plattenberg Bay. Despite our current budget constraints our ultimate vision is to build courts in all municipalities.
Equality Courts
All magistrates’ courts have now been designated as Equality Courts as part of ensuring access to justice for all our people. This has resulted in an increase in the number of cases enrolled at these courts from 447 in 2008/09 to 508 in 2009/10.
Masters Office
We are putting more efforts to turn around the Master’s offices to improve services relating to the winding up of deceased estates, the administration of insolvent estates and payments from the Guardian’s Fund. The turnaround project will focus on working with clients in distress and the speedy finalisation of matters. Interventions that form part of the turnaround strategy include the implementation of drastic measures to stamp out corruption, the implementation of electronic financial transactions, to improve turnaround times, online databases to address the credibility of the administration of insolvent estates; automation of Master’s services, the rollout of the ICMS Masters (Integrated Case Management System) to all Masters offices as well as the implementation of an effective communication strategy on the work of the Master’s offices. The Legal Aid South Africa (LASA) has been approached to assist in this regard.
An effective maintenance recovery and payment system will reduce the dependence of children on social security as more and more parents will be compelled to support their children. We continue to appoint more maintenance investigators to trace and locate errant parents and hidden assets to provide for their children as part of improving the maintenance system.
High impact legislation
Apart from the Constitution Seventeenth Amendment Bill, the Superior Courts Bill and the Legal Practice Bill to which I have referred to in my introduction, there are a number of other Bills which we aim to introduce in Parliament this year.
We are steadfastly working legislation intended to address hate crimes, however way they manifest themselves. These hate crimes include hate speech, xenophobia and related intolerance.
I must also mention the Muslim Marriages Bill which has been subjected to a broad consultation process. The Bill aims to give statutory recognition to Muslim marriages, the absence of which gives rise to countless instances of hardship, particularly in the case of women and children who find themselves in distressing situations when these marriages fail and are terminated.
The Constitution Seventeenth Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill provide a constitutional framework for the judiciary to take charge of court administration. It affirms the Chief Justice as the head of the judiciary and entrusts the incumbent of this highest office in the judiciary, with the authority to develop norms and standards for all courts. Flowing from the envisaged constitutional amendments, a court administration framework that is commensurate with the model of separation of powers in our Constitution will be developed.
I will seek guidance of Cabinet and this House at the appropriate time once we have come up with firm proposals from both our research and those undertaken by the Chief Justice and his office. In the interim, the President has, by Proclamation, enhanced the status of the Office of the Chief Justice to that of a national department. This has enabled his office to recruit competent professionals who will assist in developing an appropriate model of court administration.
Court Performance
With regards to case backlogs which undermine the right to a fair trial, the Chief Justice has established a coordinating committee dealing with case-flow management and in particular, backlogs and the delays in finalising cases. This will in future assist in ensuring greater interaction between the Criminal Justice System role players and the judiciary.
In respect of the lower courts, between April 2010 to March 2011, the 56 Regional Backlog Courts disposed of 8 111 cases, of which 5 272 cases were finalised, 2 444 withdrawn and 395 transferred. The District Backlog Courts disposed off 8 915 cases in the same period, of which 5 813 cases were finalised, 2 943 withdrawn and 159 transferred.
Since 1 November 2006 until the end of March 2011, 46 127 cases were in total disposed off by the Backlog Courts. Many of these cases would still have been on the rolls if it were not for the hard work performed by the officials in the additional backlog courts. The total number of cases disposed off from the Regional and District Court rolls, including the outputs of these backlog courts since 1 April 2010 until the end of March 2011 was a total of 17 026 cases.
The Lower Courts and the High Courts were able to dispose of more cases than the total number of new cases enrolled. A total of 962 317 new cases were enrolled and 988 451 cases disposed off. A total of 26 134 more cases were therefore disposed than received. This is sign of very commendable progress in this regard.
Allocation for the Financial Year 2011/12
A total budget of R13,518 billion has bee allocated to the Department for the 2011/12 financial year. Of this budget allocation, R4,342 billion is allocated to the Court Services programme, R2,640 billion is for the NPA and R1,656 billion for Public Entities and Chapter 9 Institutions. Much of this increase has been set aside for improving the capacity at our courts, the improved implementation of legislation that addresses rights of the most vulnerable and providing court services, hence the large increases in the Court Services (35.7 percent), State Legal Services (14.0 percent) and National Prosecuting Authority (9.2 percent) programmes over the MTEF period.
Job creation
In line with the Government’s commitment to job creation, we have, earmarked the following over the MTEF period:
- R45 million will be spent on the filling of 200 new positions at the courts
- R29 million for 90 new positions in the CFO’s office
- R13 million to appoint 65 additional Maintenance Investigators
- R23 million for the appointment of 130 Intermediaries
- R17,4 million for Children’s Court Clerks
- R12 million for 111 new posts of Child Justice Courts clerks
- R40 million for Legal Aid South Africa candidate attorneys
Conclusion
As the Executing Authority responsible for the administration of justice, supported by the Deputy Minister and working together with the accounting officer and the leadership of senior managers, we will make every effort to ensure that the Justice department delivers on the undertakings it has made. We are committed to a system of quarterly reviews where the performance of our work is subjected to scrutiny during periodic intervals. It is these reviews that must send early warnings that must alert us of possibilities of not being able to meet our targets.
We must be able to take decisive action to countervail or mitigate the possibility of not meeting these targets – and that is what we promise to keep an eye on. We will monitor performance on an ongoing basis.
Enquiries:
Tlali Tlali (Spokesperson)
Cell: 082 3333 880
E-mail: ttlali@justice.gov.za
