Chairperson
Honourable members
Distinguished guests
Comrades and friends
Ladies and gentlemen
Chairperson, it is a great honour and privilege to address this council today to present the budget vote of Department of Justice and Constitutional Development for the 2010/11 financial year.
Chairperson, I convey the warm regards, as well as the apologies, of the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Minister Jeff Radebe. Min Radebe, as honourable members might know, has been acting as President of the Republic since Monday.
We are pleased to address the council during Child Protection Week launched by President Jacob Zuma in Atteridgeville this past Friday. On this occasion the president called upon all South Africans to work together to ensure that children are safe and feel safe. He highlighted the serious matter of trafficking in persons and children in particular.
We are also pleased to address you the day after Africa Day, 25 May, the day on which, 57 years ago in 1963, the leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed the founding charter of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Honourable members, in exactly 15 days and nine hours, the kick off whistle will blow at Soccer City. It is indeed truly here and we are truly feeling it! The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is also feeling it!
Last Friday, a notice was published in the Government Gazette giving details of special courts in and around the host cities. Cases associated with the world cup, including matters affecting children, will be dealt with expeditiously. Hooligans and other perpetrators of criminal actions, whatever their nationality, will also be feeling something, the red card of the law!
The budget vote that we present today underscores our commitment to 2010 as the year of action. It provides a clear roadmap with short, medium and long term milestones on the road to a transformed justice system.
The constitutional mandate of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is to oversee the administration of justice in the interests of a safer and secure South Africa. This mandate is reflected in our vision "to provide a transformed and accessible justice system which promotes and protects social justice, fundamental human rights and freedom".
The successful execution of this mandate and the realisation of this vision are indispensible for the achievement of the key priorities that we have set for ourselves as a nation.
In his 2010 State of the Nation Address, President Jacob Zuma again stressed these national priorities. These are the creation of decent work and sustainable livelihood, education, health, rural development and food security as well as the fight against crime and corruption. The question of access to justice is central to the realisation of these goals.
Much of our work has therefore been focussed on ensuring that all in South Africa enjoy access to justice. Much of this work is also focussed on the fight against crime and corruption with the objective of ensuring that all in South Africa are safe and feel safe.
This work is done in the context of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster which is coordinated by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and consists of the South African Police Service (SAPS), Correctional Services, Home Affairs, Defence, State Security and Social Development.
The JCPS cluster has been able to achieve a greater degree of integration and coordination of the work of its constituent departments. This is evident from the significant strides with regard to the Child Justice Act of 2008 which came into operation on 1 April 2010 and the Review of the criminal justice system and the review of the review of the criminal justice.
The Child Justice Act enjoins the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, acting in conjunction with the Ministers of Police, Correctional Services, Social Development, Education and Health to adopt a national policy framework relating, among others, to a uniform, coordinated and cooperative approach by all government departments, organs of state and institutions in dealing with matters relating to child justice.
This morning, the Inter-Sectoral Committee for Child Justice (ISCCJ) consisting of the director-generals of the departments of the ministers I have just mentioned led by the Director-General of Justice, presented a draft national policy framework to the Justice Portfolio Committee. I am hopeful that this framework will reach this council soon.
The review of the criminal justice system (CJS) is one of the flagship projects of the JCPS cluster. I wish to reiterate the announcement made by my minister that the review phase of the CJS has been completed and we are now moving steadfastly with the implementation of the review outcomes.
The implementation is guided by the seven point plan approved by Cabinet which covers the following: the alignment of the strategies of the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster, establishing the Criminal Justice System Coordinating unit, improving court performance, case-backlog reduction strategy, modernisation of information technology (IT), mobilisation of the public to get involved in the fight against crime and the harmonisation of the rules of court.
Our roadmap to a transformed justice system is outlined in our 2010 to 2014 medium term strategic framework (MTSF). This framework was presented to and discussed with the Justice Portfolio Committee and the Select Committee of this council. We are indebted to the members of the committee, from all parties and should I say provinces, for their comments and guidance.
We believe that the outputs contained in the strategy are both realistic and achievable. I would like to highlight some of the key elements of this Strategy, emphasising those aspects with particular relevance to the council.
Chairperson, allow me firstly, to address the very important and long overdue matter of judicial reform. During the budget vote debate in the National Assembly, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development announced that the Constitution Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill had been finalised and approved by Cabinet. I wish to highlight key aspects of this legislation.
The Constitution Amendment Bill proposes to replace magistrate courts with lower courts, fully integrating the magistracy into a single judiciary. This is more than a mere name change. The proposed court system envisages superior courts and lower courts as part of a seamless, single judiciary under the leadership of the chief justice.
The Superior Courts Bill in turn provides for the judge presidents to give leadership to all courts within their respective divisions. This will address certain challenges in the governance and leadership structures within the magistracy.
This council became aware of some of these challenges when the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Development met with the Magistrates Commission early this year to discuss some of the transformation related challenges in the magistracy.
The Constitution Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill pave the way for the overhaul of the outdated Magistrates Courts Act of 1944, and its replacement by a Lower Courts Act which will be premised on the Superior Courts Act. We hope to finalise a draft Lower Courts Bill by the beginning of 2011.
The Constitution Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill were published in the Government Gazette No. 33216 of 21 May 2010 for comment. We are confident that this will lead to an informed and constructive public debate on the fundamental transformation of our judicial system in line with our Constitution.
We have already received views regarding the proposed relocation of the seat of the Eastern Cape high court from Grahamstown to Bisho. Some have interpreted this to mean that the bill seeks to relocate the high court from Grahamstown to Bisho.
The Grahamstown high court will continue to serve the community of the area. What is envisaged is that the judge president will perform his or her judicial coordination function from the Bisho high court, located at the seat of government in the province. This process will be managed responsibly and in consultation with the judiciary.
Significant strides have been made with regard to the transformation of the race and gender profile of the magistracy. As of 31 March 2010, blacks in the regional courts constitute 50.66 percent and whites 49.34 percent. Women represent 32 percent of the total establishment of the regional court.
In the district courts, 57 percent of the district magistrates are black and 43 percent are white. Women make 42 percent of the total number. As it is the situation in the superior courts, there is still under representation of women across the magistracy and the situation is direr at the senior echelon of the magistracy, particularly at the regional court level. This is a matter that the Magistrates Commission will have to look into.
Chairperson, we continuously strive to improve the organisational efficiency of our justice system. Especially important in this regard is the strengthening the office of the chief justice as a transitional step towards the establishment of a separate administration for the judiciary.
Part of this initiative is the re-alignment of the court administration at the regional and court levels with the envisaged court administration agency. Work is continuing in this regard and guidance will be sought from Parliament once firm proposals have emerged.
We are also strengthening our internal control systems to ensure compliance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) of 1999, and other prescripts in order to reverse the negative audit reports the department has received over the previous three years.
To achieve this, turnaround, we have enhanced our performance management system by putting stringent performance outputs in the performance agreements of senior management and staff. These outputs are in line with the performance agreement that the minister, himself, has concluded with the president recently.
Chairperson,
In pursuing access to justice we continue to commit a substantial amount of our budget to building additional courts and service delivery points for the office of the master. We do this to ensure that we reach out to rural and remote communities. We continue to build, in ever increasing numbers, court buildings where there were none before.
We have also improved the architecture of these courts to create spaces conducive to accessing justice in a constitutional democracy. These courts are more accessible to all people, including those with disabilities.
The construction of new and refurbished courts in Galeshewe in Northern Cape, Ekangala in Gauteng, Colesberg in Northern Cape and Lutzville and Ashton in Western Cape have been completed and the minister will open these courts officially in the not so distant future.
Access to justice will also be enhanced by the completion, within the next five years, of seven courts including the high courts of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. These courts include Henkey in Eastern Cape, Mamelodi, Kagiso, and Katlehong in Gauteng, Ntuzuma in KwaZulu Natal.
With regard to the high courts, a site has been procured for the construction of the main seat in Nelspruit while discussions with the Nkangala district municipality for the allocation of an additional site for a local seat of the high court in eMalahleni are at an advanced stage. This will address potential complications for communities in Mpumalanga who are closer to the North Gauteng high court in Pretoria than a high court in Nelspruit.
Parallel to the construction of new courts, we are also correcting the old magisterial districts which are informed by racial and geo-political boundaries of apartheid and reflect the defunct self governing states and homelands and the then Republic of South Africa.
This two-pronged approach seeks, on the one hand, to re-furbish the branch courts in the former black areas and rural villages and confer upon them jurisdiction to function as fully fledged courts and, on the other hand, to ensure the alignment of magisterial districts with municipal boundaries established under our democratic constitutional dispensation.
In this regard, 15 of the 90 branch courts were converted into full service courts in August last year. During this year, a further four branch courts will be converted. The conversion of branch courts into full services courts represents a significant step in our ongoing struggle to overcome the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.
Courts in many traditional black areas and rural villages only deal with the adjudication of criminal. Persons in these areas must often travel long distances to access civil justice services including maintenance, small claims courts and deceased estates.
This programme will continue until all branch courts have been converted to provide full court related services and the last vestiges of the shameful legacy of apartheid have been eradicated from our justice system.
Our strategy provides for the establishment of at least one district court in every municipal area. A draft report regarding the alignment of the magisterial districts with municipal boundaries, which will give effect to this objective, has been completed and will be published soon for comments before it is finalised.
Chairperson, no discussion on access to justice and courts will be complete without reference to small claims courts. Small claims courts are a powerful mechanism to provide access to justice, especially to the poor.
These courts function on the basis of speed, simplicity and cost effectiveness. These courts provide a forum for the resolution of civil claims up to R7 000 an amount determined in 2004. Consultations have started to increase this amount to between R10 000 and R15 000.
Today, we have 206 functioning small claims courts, five more since the budget debate in the National Assembly on 5 May. The proclamation of a further three is imminent. We aim to establish an additional 60 new courts by the end of the 2010 financial year and a further 60 by the end of the 2011 financial year. We are well on track to meet these targets.
With the launch of the Alexandra small claims court yesterday, we have established 11 courts since the beginning April 2010, one sixth of our target in one sixth of a year!
Training manuals for commissioners and clerks of the small claims courts were launched yesterday and the first training for commissioners took place last week, improving the quality of services rendered by these courts.
Most of these newly established courts will be in rural areas. Special attention is also being given to those 15 branch courts designated as full service courts. These are all located in what the topography of apartheid would have classified as black areas.
The excellent work done in these courts is done after hours, on a voluntary basis, without any remuneration, by the 1096 legal practitioners who preside as commissioners. We call on all to follow their example.
Outreach awareness campaigns to popularise the use of these Courts are being promoted, as well as referrals of cases to the courts by civil society, various pro bono organisations, legal aid clinics and lawyers.
We call upon all Members of Parliament to assist us by adopting the rallying cry: "One Constituency, One Small Claims Court".
Another act that aimed at increasing access to justice which will come into operation soon is the Jurisdiction of Regional Courts Amendment Act of 2008. The act confers civil jurisdiction on the regional courts. The immediate consequences of the commencement of the act will be the integration of the divorce courts into the regional courts.
Although the divorce courts were opened to all races in 1997, they continue to operate under the old demarcations which dislocate and marginalise people on the basis of their residence.
It is ironic and illogical that the central divorce court in Johannesburg does not have jurisdiction over the area of Pretoria, which in turn is served by the North Eastern divorce court with its seat in Durban. The new legislation will address this disjuncture which exists across all the divorce courts.
The child maintenance services at the district courts remain one of our areas of major concern. We continue to increase capacity at the courts to improve our ability to deal with the long and time wasting queues of maintenance beneficiaries and plan to reduce the waiting time substantially.
The Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) project aimed at enhancing efficiency is still on track and it enables the department to pay maintenance monies directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries. We are currently finalising the more comprehensive Third Party Funds project bid process.
We are also increasing the capacity of the master's offices to improve the provision of services for deceased and insolvent estates starting with extending capacity in at least one main magisterial court per district to deliver probate services to the communities nearest to them.
On the guardian's fund, we will ensure that 80 percent of the beneficiaries receive services within 40 days.
Honourable members, we further seek to promote access to justice through the use of indigenous languages as languages of record in our courts. The Indigenous Language pilot project, which is being implemented at 27 district courts country wide, aims to enhance the status and dignity of African languages.
Since the inception of this project in April 2009, a total of 890 cases have been heard by these courts in indigenous languages. The lessons learned during the pilot project will inform the policy framework for language use in the courts envisaged to be completed before the end of this year.
Chairperson, I also wish to inform this council of the "Access to Justice and Promotion of Constitutional Rights" programme which is a joint initiative of the department and the European Union which is being coordinated by the Foundation for Human Rights.
The European Union has committed €25 million (about R250 million based on today's exchange rate) which will be disbursed over a period of three years. Through this programme 45 community advice centres will be established across the country.
The primary purpose of the community advice centres would be to educate the communities of their constitutional rights, the Service Charter for Victims of Crime and how to access the different courts, including the equality courts and the small claims courts.
Chairperson, another milestone in our endeavours to improve access to justice is the very important review of the civil justice system. Cabinet recently approved the terms of reference for this review. The review seeks to ensure that the civil justice system provides a speedy, effective and affordable resolution of civil disputes.
We will, by the end of this financial year, submit to Cabinet and Parliament a comprehensive report on the deficiencies and shortcomings of the civil justice system which will assist in the development of a programme of action to address the shortcomings.
Let me take this opportunity to highlight some of the important bills that this council will have to deal with in the very near future. These bills are at various stages of processing either by the department or by the Portfolio Committee in the National Assembly.
Of these, the three bills that impact most directly upon our objective of ensuring that everyone in South Africa is safe and feels safe are:
* The Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill, providing for the prosecution and imposition of heavy penalties for those involved in the trafficking of persons and for the protection of and assistance to, victims of trafficking among others
* The Protection from Harassment Bill, which is a victim empowerment tool and provides for the granting of a protection order by a court of law against persons who harass or stalk their victims and
* The third one is the much spoken about amendment to section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, dealing with the use of force in affecting arrest. This amendment is not about "shoot to kill", but about bringing section 49 into line with the judgment of the constitutional court in the Walters case. The Traditional Courts Bill, which seeks to harmonise the traditional justice system and traditional courts with the Constitution is also before Parliament.
Chairperson, other bills which are being prepared for submission to Parliament include the Constitution Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill to which I have already alluded, the Legal Practice Bill, the Muslim Marriages Bill, the State Liability Bill, the Prevention and Combating of Hate Speech, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance Bill, the South African Human Rights Commission Amendment Bill and the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill.
Chairperson, one aspect of our legislative programme that often goes unnoticed is so-called subordinate legislation, the rules and regulations, the nuts and bolts, required for the implementation of Acts of Parliament.
Significant in this regard are the following regulations which were promulgated during the year under review:
* Regulations under the Child Justice Act, 2008
* Regulations on exhumations and reburials under the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, 1995.
* Regulations under the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, 2008, relating to the expungement of certain criminal records.
The implementation of this last mentioned act has been very successful in the short time it has been in operation. It has contributed significantly to promoting access to justice and enhancing organisational efficiency.
The creation of the mechanism in the legislation in terms of which members of the public can rid themselves of minor misdemeanours committed years ago without having to approach the president for a pardon, is being used to its full potential.
Of the R12.180.353 billion allocated to the department for the financial year 2010/11, the amount of R3.871.934 billion will be allocated to improve access to justice in our Court Services programme. R2.368.734 billion of this amount is for both the regions and the courts.
The National Prosecuting Authority has an allocation of R2.439.624 billion and a total of R1.442.083 billion has been allocated as transfer funds to the justice institutions such as the South African Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector and the Legal Aid Board. R117 million has been set aside for the implementation of legislation, including the legislation alluded to above.
The following are funds that have been ring fenced for:
* Buildings and fixed infrastructure: R479.765 million
* Reduction of criminal case backlogs: R212 million
* The integrated justice system: R134 million.
Chairperson, our profound appreciation goes to the chairperson and members of the Select Committee for their continued support and guidance. We look forward to further strengthening this relationship as we embark on one of the most extensive legislative programmes spearheaded by the department.
May the short recess for the 2010 FIFA World Cup give the council and ourselves the deserved opportunity to re-energise ourselves for the task that lies ahead of us.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
26 May 2010
Source: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (http://www.justice.gov.za)
