Minister of Public Works, Mr TW Nxesi,
Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr J Jeffery,
Executive Mayor of Msunduzi Local Municipality, Cllr Chris Ndlela,
The MEC for Finance, Ms I Cronje,
Judge of the Durban High Court, Judge Shishi,
Regional Court President, Mr ES Nzimande,
Chief Magistrate KZN, Mr T Mabaso,
Chief Magistrate PMB, Mrs E Monyemore
Deputy Executive Mayor of Msunduzi Local Municipality, Cllr T Zuma,
Speaker of Msunduzi Local Municipality, Cllr B Baijoo,
Chief Whip of Msunduzi Local Municipality, Cllr T Magubane,
The Acting DDG, Court Services, Mr TZ Malema,
The Acting Regional Head, Justice and Constitutional Development, Ms M Ramela,
Correctional Services, Mr Mchunu and Mr Mkhize,
Regional Head: Public Protector, Mr S Dube,
SAHRC representative, Mr B Ntombela.
It gives me great pleasure to be here once more in this beautiful City of Pietermaritzburg on this very important occasion as we launch the Pietermaritzburg Magistrates Court. Very importantly, we launch this court in the year that we celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the 1994 political breakthrough that ushered in our democratic dispensation.
By 1994, the atrocities of the past were not only fresh in the minds of many victims and relatives of victims of the most heinous and brutal crimes committed by the apartheid regime, but some of those violent crimes were still taking place in various parts of our country. This province of KwaZulu-Natal as well as what used to be called the Kathorus region of what is today Ekurhuleni were amongst some areas that continued to experience the brutal violence orchestrated against the defenceless people of our country.
Last month we were in Sharpville to commemorate National Human Rights Day, at the scene where we have erected a Monument in tribute to the 69 fellow South Africans gunned down for merely believing and thus expressing that they too were equal citizens of this country and should not be distinguished by inferior rights including the humiliation of carrying of passes.
Since 1994, we have gone about consolidating our democratic dispensation. In doing so, we have repealed various apartheid era laws that were responsible for the various crimes against our people. Those laws were repealed because they were deemed inconsistent with the new supreme law of the land, that being the Constitution of our democratic republic.
Today often we ask ourselves various questions on why certain behaviours that otherwise must belong to the jungle still rear their ugly heads amongst our communities. Sociologists, priests, psychologists, artists, various experts and other role players and public commentators on human behaviour must join the endeavour to reconstruct our country into the image of our Constitutional democracy.
That is why we found it absurd that some, for whatever reason, could suggest today that the democratic right to vote should be nullified enmasse through a spoilt vote because some of those of our people who were in the trenches against the system of apartheid paid the ultimate price for our freedom and democracy.
Just this month we commemorated the 35th anniversary of the slaying by the apartheid regime of a young and mere 22 year old Solomon “Kalushi” Mahlangu on the 6th of April. Again on the 10th of April we commemorated the 21st anniversary of the gunning down by the racist and reactionary forces of Chris Martin Thembisile Hani in an attempt to disrupt our democratisation process in the run-up to the 1994 democratic breakthrough.
Allow me to correct a misconception suggestive that we as the ANC government must not speak as an ANC government. There is this tendency which is gaining currency, that anything negative can be propagated against the ANC and be attributed to the ANC government, but that the ANC government in general and the ANC in particular must not politically respond to these political charges made against it.
Indeed this Executive was elected as an ANC government and we do not only take responsibilities for shortcomings but also the successes that we forge under our watch. So I would like to reassure the doubting Thomases that there is nothing amiss when we report back to the people on what we have achieved as per the 2009 electoral mandate.
As the ANC government, we are under no illusion that ours is not just to normalise democracy in its theoretical and idealistic conception, but also to equally underline such normalisation through a comprehensively and fundamentally transformed society. This is the broad context of our political mandate as the ruling party.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Please allow me now to dwell much more on the technical details of why we are here today. This court was housed in a building that was erected in 1938. And over the years the staff and services rendered outgrew the office accommodation space and there was a need for new premises. Furthermore the court was sitting in three different areas namely Pietermaritz Street (District and Regional Criminal), Umngeni Building in Pietermaritz Street and Vulindela/Plessilaer.
However, these courts were subsequently absorbed into the Pietermaritzburg cluster after 1994. The intention to build a new court was to house all staff and services together because of the logistical inconveniences involved in operating three offices at distant places apart.
At some point the court was vacated and gradually deteriorated over time. Eventually vagrants occupied the building and on 16 November 2006 a fire they had lit resulted in the building being burnt extensively. On 2 September 2008 the building was handed over to a contractor to start with renovations. The building was completed in September 2010 at a cost of about R57 million.
The Court is not only a Colonial Historic building but also once hosted the appearance of what was later to become the first Democratic President of South Africa, our recently departed icon former President Nelson Mandela. Former President Mandela appeared in this court in 1962 after he was arrested in Howick at the time when his evasion of political detention earned him the title the “Black Pimpernel”.
After his first appearance he was transferred to Johannesburg for further trial and sentencing. Thus this court prides itself as one of our heritages signifying an important part of our history.
Services rendered here include District - Civil, Equality Court and Small Claims, Sexual Offences court for victims up to 12 years and Family – Domestic Violence, Maintenance, Harassment and Children's Court.
The importance of this court is futher signified by the large areas that falls under its jurisdiction which include the various areas under Chief Zuma, Chief Zondi, Chief Ngcobo, Chief Nsikayezwe as well as Endendale, Northdale, the areas in and around Pietermaritzburg and other areas including the western and northern surbubs.
Police stations serviced by this court include Loop Street, Mountainrise, Townhill, Presbury, Alexandre Road, Hilton, Taylors Halt, Bishopstowe, Thornville and Plessilaer.
Ladies and gentlemen, this court has the following facilities: 3 Civil Courts, 2 Maintenance Courts, 1 Children’s Court, 1 Domestic Violence Courts, 1 Harassment Court, 1 Sexual Offences Courts, 12 Magistrates Offices, 1 Office for the Area Court Manager, 3 Offices for Senior Admin Officials, 27 Offices for Clerks, 2 Office for interpreters, 2 offices for Court prep’s, 1 Office for Intermediary, 3 Offices for Investigators, 3 offices for maintenance officers, 2 offices for private attorney consulting and 1 office for the SAPS.
The criminal cases dealt with in this court were 17 675 in 2013. In the same year there were 1 385 maintenance cases and 18 999 civil cases. There were 47 970 beneficiaries paid with an amount totalling over R32, 9 million. Amongst others, this court dealt with 447 sexual offence cases, 4 249 divorce violence cases, 2 583 small claims court cases and 575 children’s court cases over the same period. This is certainly a busy court and this is what we mean when we speak of access to justice for all!
Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen,
As we have announced or indicated before, the Civil Justice Reform Programme (CJRP) was approved by Cabinet in 2010 and will aim to provide a speedy, affordable, simple and accessible civil justice system for the adjudication of civil disputes by our courts. An improved civil justice system will guarantee equal benefit and protection of the law to all our people as required by our Constitution.
The justice system which favours the strong and rich to the detriment of the weak and the poor has no place under our constitutional dispensation. It is for this reason that as Government we are leaving no stone unturned in our endeavour to reverse the legacy of inequality and deprivation in order that all people of South Africa must enjoy the fruits of our hard-earned democracy.
As many would know, the monetary jurisdiction of our district courts has stood at R100 000 since 1998. Our investigation has shown that despite the establishment of the Civil Regional Courts in 2008 when civil jurisdiction was conferred on the Regional Courts for the first time, most of the civil matters above R100 000 are still being taken to the High Courts.
This is despite the high cost of litigation in the High Courts. We continue to engage with the Judiciary, and that being the Regional Court Presidents, to devise means to ensure that Regional Courts are used optimally.
As far as monetary jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Courts is concerned, we have deemed it appropriate to increase the District Courts’ threshold to R200 000 whilst that of Regional Courts is fixed at R400 000. Notices giving effect to this determination were published in the Gazette earlier this year and the date of effect is 1st June 2014.
The increase in the jurisdiction of Magistrates’ Courts comes against the backdrop of the increase to the jurisdiction of the Small Claims Courts to R15 000, 00 which was also gazetted earlier this year.
It is worth noting that Small Claims Courts have increased to 293, of which 30 were established in the current financial year alone. A total of 1 630 Small Claims Court commissioners, most of them legal practitioners, preside in these courts on a pro bono basis, which is for free of charge. We continue to applaud their selfless and tireless contribution which without doubt helps give effect to access to justice to all.
And as we have also indicated before, the court-connected mediation made by the Rules Board for Courts of Law will be implemented from 1 August 2014. These rules will be implemented incrementally, commensurate with the capacity that is being built at our courts for this purpose. Through these rules, most civil cases will be diverted to mediation thereby alleviating our clogged court rolls.
Mediation also helps avoid the huge costs in legal fees. An added advantage is that the language used is often the language spoken by the parties and that the dispute is usually thus resolved in a peaceful and reconciliatory manner, resulting in a win-win situation. The successful implementation of these rules at the Magistrates’ Courts will produce a useful blueprint to guide the extension of this adventure to all our courts throughout the country.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is our belief as the Executive that is charged with the comprehensive social, economic and political transformation of our country that all the negative trends in our society such as the criminal activities resulting into cases in our courts must decrease drastically and rapidly. These facilities that we handover to the community of Pietermaritzburg and the various communities under its jurisdiction are our practical pledge towards that course of a crime free and just society.
Crime, violence and all forms of sexual offences can only decrease not because of these facilities working alone, but through the concerted will of all our people as a whole working together to move South Africa forward. That is why whilst we dedicate these modern court resources towards combating crime and promoting justice everywhere, we invite all members of society to be active partners in rebuilding our country into the image of our Constitutional order.
We are encouraged by the aggressive stances displayed by the judiciary in sexual violence cases, especially the two separate incidences where two six year old girls were brutally raped, one in Durban and the other in Port Elizabeth. In both cases life sentences were handed over by the courts.
Allow me to take this opportunity to profoundly thank you for being here today and believing that this court we launch here today will be a lasting tribute to our commitment for a better South Africa and a better society for all our people.
I thank you!
