Department of Justice & Constitutional Development 2022/23 Performance Plan; with Ministry

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed the Minister and Deputy Minister. It was noted that the Minister would depart early to attend Cabinet. The APP and budget would be presented and she also welcomed an update on the NPA and SIU as well as any challenges faced. Concerns had been raised about delays in the corruption cases.

Minister's Address
Minister Ronald Lamola stated that they were meeting as the nation was recovering from the devastating floods in Kwa Zulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Society was also still recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. These matters delayed plans in ways that could not have been imagined. Members must be conscious of the effects of climate change on humanity and society at large. The Department had to ensure that its services were deeply embedded in communities and that services were still accessible in the most severe circumstances.

The country had just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism. A National Action Plan was launched at the conference to combat racism and xenophobia. The launch of the plan was for the country to combat these, and not just for government alone. With the assistance of the Human Sciences Research Council, they also launched a baseline study to determine the levels of racism, anti-foreigner sentiment and homophobia.

The report made worrying findings, including the prominent form of discrimination reported by the general population of racism and racial intolerance. According to the Socio-economic Justice for All programme database, 5% of the adult population reported experiencing racial discrimination in the year prior to the survey interview.

About 43% of the racial discrimination victims said they experienced intolerance at the workplace while 37% said it happened in public places. This may be underestimated as silent forms of racism are not considered. The South African Social Attitudes Survey showed that in 2018, 30% of the adult population felt discriminated against, while 15% felt that way often. This made it clear that racism was still a central problem in the country, affecting many citizens. It was painful that this was persistent 25 years into our democracy. The National Action Plan was set to deal with this, as all South Africans needed to play their part.

Members of Parliament were elected to pursue the democratic project. What would they do if communities were acting in a way that was contrary to the democratic society they took an oath to build? The system of checks and balances would mean nothing if institutions of power in communities were not being held accountable. Parliament was for everyone to account to, and not just those in the public office. Constitutional values were the glue that was meant to hold us together. These values were in Section 1 of the Constitution.

The Department would recognise the 25th anniversary of the Constitution with events aimed at celebrating this milestone, including a symposium on the actual date of the anniversary. Entrenching the rule of law and fighting corruption and fraud were in full flight in the rebuilding process of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). They were directing critical resources to the NPA to ensure it had the human capital and financial resources to respond to crimes afflicting communities – despite the challenging fiscal environment they found themselves in.

The biggest challenge the nation was facing was a reliable supply of electricity and the provision of reliable passenger rail transport. While the challenges of Eskom and PRASA were well documented, one problem they would be monitoring closely in the NPA performance plan was that of cable theft convictions as this was an act of economic sabotage. Now more than ever, those who were benefiting from communities being left in darkness needed to be exposed and the arm of the law should catch up with them.

The Department was pleased with the NPA and the justice system for convictions recently attained. The Newcastle Regional Court had convicted and sentenced five people for the possession of stolen property and tampering with essential infrastructure the week prior. All the accused were sentenced to ten years imprisonment. These cable thieves were sabotaging the economy, and a message needed to be sent clearly and unambiguously that this behaviour would not be tolerated. Two cable thieves were also convicted by the Bronkhorstspruit Regional Court, and those thieves received 12 and 15 year prison sentences for crimes committed in 2018. These convictions would send a clear message that the criminal justice system and law enforcement were taking this matter seriously.

On the fight against corruption, they had spared no effort to strengthen the NPA. They continue to direct resources to them to enable them to better respond to corruption and broader crimes afflicting communities. The resources they were providing would never be enough, but they would enable them to plan.

Minister Lamola noted the Chairperson’s remark about the pace of prosecutions for corruption and assured the Committee that the Investigating Directorate of the NPA would get to the bottom of the matter. The Investigating Directorate since its establishment in 2019 was making strides. It prioritised nine major corruption cases for enrolment in the last six months. They were hoping that Members of Parliament would be the first to defend the NPA mandate to prosecute without fear or favour when accused persons were brought before the courts, regardless of their societal standing.

The Zondo Commission reports had revealed rampant abuse of power and the Department would be working on an implementation plan for the various findings through a team established for this purpose. This would ensure an appropriate response to the challenges of corruption.

The Special Investigating Unit (SUI) was also proving to be a significant agent in the fight against corruption and maladministration. There was objective proof that it was a vital core to the country’s accountability and consequence management framework, while also nearing its 25th anniversary. To date, the SIU had enrolled cases worth billions of rands at the Special Tribunal and in the High Courts. They were seeking to strengthen the cooperation between the SIU and other law enforcement agencies, such as the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation and the NPA.

Specialised Commercial Crime Courts have been expanded to cope with the work that may come as a result of the Zondo Commission report. Internal reviews of South Africa’s anti-corruption policy were being ensured by internal stakeholders. The implementation plan on the Zondo Commission recommendations within the scope of the Department would be presented at the appropriate time.

The Minister commended the Committee for the way it processed the three Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Bills recommended by President Cyril Ramaphosa. They were building the material to combat and address another pervasive and almost invisible pandemic, in the form of GBV. The three GBV Bills would be implemented in 2022/23 across the board as measures to impact our communities.

The Ministry launched a programme of action this month called 'The Year of Community' to ensure that justice services were at the heart of communities as they were responding to the President’s rallying call that "no one be left behind". Thus far, imbizos were held in communities identified as places in which concrete interventions will alleviate the plight of the recipients of justice services.

Three Bill would be introduced during 2022/23: the Lower Courts Bill, Magistrates Bill and the Regulation of Trusts Bill. These would replace the current legislation governing these areas to help law enforcement obtain accurate information to deal with issues such as money laundering.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the ransomware attack on the Department IT System had devastating consequences, but also presented an opportunity to fast-track the modernisation of justice services as well as the overall IT infrastructure. During 2022/23, the Department intends to implement phase 2 of the online services for Maintenance, Protection Orders, Deceased Estates, and the National Register on Sexual Offences. They would also commence with phase 1 of the State Attorneys online services.

Department of Justice and Constitutional Development Annual Performance Plan 2022/23
Adv Doctor Mashabane, DoJ&CD Director-General, spoke to the Department’s strategic focus for the year and outlined how performance measurement would be determined for the objectives for these programmes: Administration, Court Services, State Legal Services, Auxiliary Services.

Ms Nelisiwe Pule, DoJ&CD Acting CFO, presented the Department’s budget allocations for 2022/23. Reasons for year-on-year fluctuations over the medium term were mainly due to:
- A 2% budget growth resulting from additional NPA funding
- A negative decline of 1% in 2023/24 due to non-allocation of salary adjustments
- A 4% budget growth in 2024/25 due to non-reduction of budget baseline in 2021 budget process.

See presentation for details

Discussion
Ms M Bartlett (ANC, Northern Cape) asked if the Department was using a service provider to develop the digitisation of services which was a key focus. Had there been any challenges in implementing this? How was the Department raising awareness about online services?

The APP indicated 85 courtrooms rolled out. How far was this process and what challenges were the Department facing?

The Department was planning to conduct 30 specialised training programmes through the Justice College. What would the specialised training cover? Who would receive such training?

What was the Department’s current vacancy rate? What measures were being put in place to fill those vacancies? How did the vacancies currently affect the courts in various provinces? Did the Department have sufficient personnel for the effective functioning of the Sexual Offences Court? Were there sufficient family advocate officers? Were they operational within the provinces? What challenges were there for the family advocate officers?

Mr C Dodovu (ANC, North West) welcomed the presentation which demonstrated that there was fresh energy and perspective in the Department. He hoped that they would implement the APP precisely.

He asked about historically disadvantaged lawyers and advocates not being afforded opportunities to represent government entities and this resulting in an imbalance. How would the current budget allocation alleviate that problem?

Ms E Nkosi (ANC, Mpumalanga) said the presentation was detailed and informative. On corruption cases, the SIU had been investigating matters involving the Master’s Office, the Office of the State Attorney and the building of new courts. Had the Department received any final reports on these matters? What was the status on the upgrading of courts in provinces? What were the challenges faced? What were the main challenges for Court Services in terms of infrastructure, staff capacity and IT services? Which provinces were affected the most? What measures were being put in place to address the challenges?

On Specialised Commercial Crime Courts, in which provinces had these been established and what were the timeframes for further rollouts of these courts?

Could more information be provided by the Department on the plan to implement recommendations from the Commission on State Capture? What were the actual plans and timeframes for implementation?

On engagements with stakeholders on the Equality Courts, what was the status and content of these engagements and in which provinces were these taking place?

On the UN comprehensive assessment of the criminal justice system report, what were the key findings? Had they been implemented yet? Were there challenges with implementing them?

Mr I Sileku (DA, Western Cape) asked for an update on the Court Audio Visual Solution. How far was it and had it been procured? It was meant to have been procured by 28 February 2022.

Some outputs had been removed from the Administration programme in the 2022/23 APP. What was the rationale for this? An indicator for the reduction of fruitless and wasteful expenditure had been included. What was the rationale for that indicator?

On GBV, could the Department share if it was making any progress in dealing with this matter? This was a crucial matter, especially the murder of Namhla Mtwa and what the media was reporting about people aligned to political parties not being held accountable. This was concerning as there were cases every year and they seemed to be failing the women. The Department needed to outline its plan.

The Chairperson said the Department indicated that one of the focus areas was modernising and increasing access to the justice system, and the Committee wished it well on this. What, if any, challenges were experienced provincially in access to justice, particularly in rural areas? This included network connectivity difficulties present in rural areas.

What was the update on the current plans to strengthen the NPA? This includes the appointment of more prosecutors and strategies for the NPA to have its own budget. What was the update on the Investigating Directorate of the NPA, its current capacity to investigate serious crimes, complex and high-profile corruption cases arising from the Zondo Commission reports as well as progress on implementing the TRC recommendations for apartheid crimes?

What strategies were in place to strengthen enforcement of the implementation of SIU remedial actions by certain institutions? What was the progress in reviewing the Magistrates Act of 1944 and other relevant legislation to streamline and expedite disciplinary processes for magistrates?

The Chairperson asked about the two indicator targets that aimed to move from 50% to 100% for the filling of vacancies in its financial management unit?

DoJ&CD responses
Deputy Minister John Jeffery handed over to the Director-General to respond. He would cover points at the end that had not been addressed. The NPA was independent and would reply to questions addressed to them as they determined who would be prosecuted.

Acting Head of Court Services, Mr Tsietsi Malema, addressed questions about the online services including maintenance, domestic violence and so on. They were items still under development for the current financial year. Once they were finalised, the Department would work with the Public Education and Communication (PEC) within the Department to host public campaigns that would help inform the public. This would only be done once they were certain that the system was robust and worked properly. It would be rolled out as soon as it had been tested to prevent glitches.

On family advocate services, the services had been extended to include marriage courts. The challenges included having to deal with obtaining additional family counsellors. They had a discussion with Human Resources, looking at various options including having family law paralegals to provide support as they needed the legal services and not necessarily at a professional level. They were also looking into modifying the terms for ad-hoc counsellors so the rates would be attractive. This would allow them to extend service provision. They were also providing housing services to assist district offices.

In the regions themselves, they were changing the course and redefining the road laid by the former regional offices into provincial offices that will then provide the entirety of services under one roof. The Department would then have representation led by the provincial head. They would maintain the national roles, but they would no longer be providing corporate support at a national level. They would provide those services within the corporate structures themselves. This would improve the level of services provided to the courts doing business in the regions.

On the SCCCs, they housed four offices developed last year. This year, they were gradually enhancing the ones previously established. This was to ensure that they were getting support and administrative support and office equipment to avoid hiccups.

The Equality Courts were not doing so well, largely because they needed to go back and work with institutions to drive awareness through campaigns to educate communities. They were doing an audit of how many clerks remained who had previously been trained. They would then embark on programmes to upskill them through the Justice College. This was directed at clerks as well as magistrates who were dealing with equality matters. This would hopefully increase the number of cases brought forward.

Adv Praise Kambula, National Strategic Plan (NSP) to end GBVF Convenor on Justice, Safety and Protection, replied about the challenges faced by Femicide Watch. The Femicide Watch was a data repository that was the first of its kind in Africa. It was introduced to ensure that there was a centralised location for all stakeholders to be able to view the data on femicide cases. It contained both victim and perpetrator data to help the country know the type of cases and where they were located. This would inform policy direction and response mechanisms.

They had moved to phase 4 of Femicide Watch. They were developing it using a phased method as it was a huge programme. The ICJS (Integrated Criminal Justice System) transversal hub was being used for the different criminal justice system departments to communicate and exchange information. The current focus was between the Department of Justice as a data source and SAPS as a data source. They were also using the NPA in certain instances.

No challenges were currently being faced with its development as they were still at the development phase. The focus was still on increasing data metrics so that they would know who was perpetrating femicide cases, where, and towards whom. They were mostly collecting disaggregated data to understand femicide in the country.

The Sexual Offences Courts were being established in the current financial year. These courts would be backed up by the legislation. Women marched in 2018 to have these courts as the statutory courts so the Department responded to that. The amended legislation required for these courts to be established according to the resource requirements encapsulated by the legislation.

In terms of the resources, the previous courts were now being established according to what the legislation required. Those courts already had the required resources and resource compliance was evaluated in the previous year. The courts were ready to be implemented.

There was no country in the world with an antidote for GBV and femicide. The Department was still finding its feet and exploring ways to improve the situation. The Presidential Summit Declaration against GBVF was the guideline on how to intervene. The Department has ensured that reluctant victims have easier access to the courts. A web portal for domestic violence matters had been set up, and only needed to be adopted by civil society as it was fully functional.

They also introduced an SMS system to ensure that there was communication between the courts and victims to enable them to track the progress of their cases. They were decentralising the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO) services, as they were currently at the national office only. The Amendment Act ensures that the NRSO is protection for all victims. People working with potentially vulnerable people will have to be vetted before being employed and the NRSO would assist with this.

Ms Conny Mametja, Deputy Director-General: Corporate Services, addressed questions on vacancies and the modernisation of infrastructure. On the Court Audio-Visual Solution, the Department planned to install the solution in about 85 courtrooms through ICJS funding. They had already written and submitted a business case to SITA as it would assist with the procurement process.

On the PABX system, of the 283 sites planned, they had completed about 72 sites. They were in the process of replacing switches in courtrooms where there were no switches. The programme had already started and was included in the APP.

Network connectivity in rural areas was still a challenge. They had included a plan in the APP to upgrade their bandwidth through SITA to improve connectivity. They also planned to roll out additional sites to provide access to wi-fi.

The vacancy rate had been reduced from around 9% to about 7% as of 30 April 2022 as they managed to fill over 800 positions in 2021/22. Of the current vacancies, they had filled about 140 positions and were only left with 25 vacancies. The remaining vacancies were in various stages of the recruitment process. There was a plan in place to fill them within the current financial year.

The vacancies in the financial management department had been over 300 positions. Just over 51 positions were now vacant and the rest had been filled. The financial management vacancy rate was around 18%. They had made it a priority to ensure that the Office of the CFO was capacitated, and they had recently appointed the CFO.

The upgrading of courts came with challenges and limitations in the maintenance they could get done. They received a threshold increase as provided by Public Works and DoJ&CD would now be able to do minor refurbishments in the courts. They had 80 courts undergoing major refurbishments.

They were piloting a Total Facilities Management Solution (TFMS) which would provide maintenance and repairs to identified courts. This programme would run for at least three years. Procurement was one of the ways they sourced contractors to provide these maintenance services to courts. They usually found it challenging to source contractors in the Eastern Cape areas. To alleviate that, they were working on a three-year contract to alleviate this problem of having to source contractors as and when needed.

Capital expenditure for new court buildings was currently under Public Works which was their implementation agent. Public Works had their own capacity limitations which affected the Department’s ability to deliver projects on time. There were engagements at various levels to find a way of expediting some of the projects listed.

Chief Master, Adv Martin Mafojane, addressed the question about the SIU investigation of the Master's Offices. The courts were given cases by the SIU. They had been given disciplinary cases through the SIU recommendation report. The new APP outlined the requirements and procedures to appoint solicitors. The SIU recommendation was to correct the disciplinary process and it had implemented this process and it had progressed to an advanced stage.

Mr Pandelani Monyai, Chief Technology Officer: SITA, provided a progress update on court audio-visual infrastructure. The delays were a cluster-wide problem that did not affect Correctional Services facilities alone. It also affected the NPA and Legal Aid. SITA was at an advanced stage to ensure that the process would be concluded.

On the key findings of the DPME report to assess the effectiveness of the ICJS programme across all ICJS member departments. The first key finding was Treasury at the time had not finalised the allocation of funding as it was still a split vote. That had now been successfully completed.

The other findings had to do with SITA. It had to ensure that project implementation occurred and that spending was according to the guidelines. The backlogs causing delays in infrastructure were also raised as this affected application development. Another key finding was that it was to look at other mechanisms where SITA was unable to assist them. They were to engage Treasury when this occurred. So far, they had successfully implemented seven recommendations and only needed to implement six more as per the APP.

Ms Pule explained that irregular expenditure indicator was to try and reduce the amount of irregular expenditure that the Department incurred on a yearly basis. The target was to reduce the amount each year through effective contract renewals as well as consequence management. The targets were aligned to the MTSF which was the Minister’s agreement on reducing irregular expenditure.

Mr Donald Mpholo, DoJ&CD Chief Director: Human Resources, replied about the courses offered at the Justice College. The beneficiaries of the specialised programmes were normally internal and external officials from other departments. In addressing the Justice College repositioning strategy, they structured the curriculum to concentrate on soft skills that are learnt in a short space as well as hard skills that were more of functional training. They had started with the development of masterclasses that focussed on senior management members. They would then teach value management that would assist with human resource development.

They also offered internships and learnerships which were more pronounced in their prospectus that was released. They were also conducting learning programmes for hard skills, focussing on the NPA, judiciary, the Public Protector of South Africa, and the Information Regulator.

Ms Kalay Pillay, DoJ&CD DDG: Legislative Development, spoke on the work done on the recommendations from the Zondo Commission. They were awaiting the final report, but had been implementing changes based on the reports they had already been given. They analysed these reports and looked at the costs of implementation.

An internal task team was set up to consider the reports, and they summarised the first three. The fourth report was still being analysed. Once this is concluded, they would develop an implementation plan which would be submitted as an implementation report.

A review of various anti-corruption organisations was conducted. A number of those fell under the Justice Department, namely the SIU and the NPA. They were analysed on whether they were in a multi-disciplinary conceptual phase.

They identified that several pieces of legislation needed to be strengthened. This included the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, the SIU Act and possibly the NPA Act. These needed to be amended to strengthen their anti-corruption consequences.

Ms Pat Moodley, DoJ&CD KZN Regional Head, dealt with access to justice for rural communities. A major challenge was the distances they needed to travel, as well as the conditions of the roads that they needed to use to access the over 70 courts in Kwa-Zulu Natal, and it was a vast community. The plan for this year was to refurbish a bus given to them in the past to convert it into a mobile justice office. This would include the services of the Master. They would then go out to rural communities where people faced great hardship in accessing the courts due to poverty.

Another difficulty was that there was a lack of synergy between the work done by various departments. They did not have sufficient information about the work of other departments to be able to help people fully. An example was not knowing shelters to refer people to after they had reported domestic violence. Synergy had been achieved in urban areas, so this meant that it was possible to implement.

They also discovered that there was a lack of understanding of the roles of various government departments that were responsible for the administration of justice. Complaints relating to the SAPS would be directed to the Department of Justice. For this year, 12 outreach programmes were planned to hopefully address these issues.

Ms Dibuseng Mongoato, DoJ&CD Eastern Cape Regional Head, agreed they faced similar ones in the Eastern Cape as raised by Ms Moodley. Other challenges included network connectivity for courts located in deep rural areas. Cellular connectivity was poor, so providing mobile data for officials was insufficient.

Another challenge was sourcing suppliers for most needed services in the rural areas. They were looking into obtaining trucks as sometimes sourcing a plumber for repairs may be exceedingly difficult. Some of the courts were in a poor state.

Given that staffing capacity had increased, there was a possibility that they could address these problems this financial year as a challenge in the past was not having enough capacity to provide services to citizens. The increased delegations would assist with this.

On travelling distances, they were fortunate in that they had many periodical courts. These usually provided only criminal services in the past. These courts being proclaimed in May 2022 as full service courts allow for an increase of services being rendered to meet communities halfway. Some of these courts were in halls and in a poor state. The needs of communities require that these courts be rehabilitated to ensure that services are still provided to communities as they cannot afford to close them down.

Mr Fhedzisani Pandelani, Executive Officer for all Offices of State Attorney, clarified about the final report from the SIU that the investigation was still ongoing, and the State Attorney had not received the final report. On briefing protocols, there were milestones and key performance indicators relating to how they were transform briefing patterns going forward. The state attorney milestone had been achieved and it fell short on the briefing of legal practitioners by half a percentage.

Adv Mthunzi Mhaga, NPA Special Director: Strategic and Legal Advisor, said when the three reports from the Zondo Commission were released, the NPA ensured that it established a task force to coordinate and prioritise those cases. There is work in progress as 20 cases had since been enrolled in court, and 65 accused persons appeared before the courts. 82 investigations had been declared by the ID Head.

In terms of capacity, the NPA had it but could do with more. They had experienced prosecutors who had experience in dealing with serious, complex commercial crimes. These were being poached by the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit (SCCU) and others were now practising at the bar. Some of them are seconded by the Hawks. They were a very well-oiled machine with their personnel.

They are in discussions with the Zondo Commission to onboard their digital forensic capacity to the NPA to assist with the investigations of these complex crimes. They were also seeking the advocates that were leading evidence and their investigators.

On the TRC prosecutions, the NPA leadership was committed to ensuring that those responsible for the crimes were held accountable. This was demonstrated by establishing a special division headed by the Deputy National Director. Since its establishment, 38 investigations had been reopened, and 13 were yet to be reopened. In court, they finalised 2 inquests, and one had been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The challenges faced were due to some of the implicated persons passing on, along with some of the witnesses. Others were aging so their health was compromised. This made it difficult to find witnesses to help put together evidence that could sustain a conviction.

Mr Mashabane clarified that indicators that had not been carried over from prior years were indicators specific to that period. They carried over those that were continuing to 2024.

Deputy Minister Jeffery noted that the Department had covered most of the questions raised. On the concern about magistrates, both the Magistrates Bill and the Lower Courts Bill were on the Department’s website for public comment until 15 June. They would engage with magistrates before finalising those Bills to send to Cabinet for approval.

He hoped that the responses had given a provincial perspective. Matters on the renovations of courts had been supplied to the National Assembly and an update did need to be provided to the Committee. There had been problems with Public Works doing the renovations of court buildings. At times, these challenges would stem from disputes with the contractor which happened at the Musina and the Lusikisiki Magistrate Courts.

Closing remarks
The Chairperson thanked the Department for answering the Committee’s questions and for providing a provincial perspective. It was informative as it assisted the Committee to follow up in their oversight work once they were made aware of the various matters raised.

She welcomed the review and replacement of colonial and apartheid era legislation as it had come up in previous engagements with the Department.

The positive developments about the victims of sexual assault crimes were also welcomed, especially preventing victimisation of certain groups and the Department’s stance to implement the GBV legislation as passed by the Committee.

The Committee would have further engagements at a later stage on progress in prosecutions and investigations of cases related to State Capture. Another area where updates were welcomed was the list of Bills expected from the Department for 2022/23. The Committee was concerned about the delays in finalising corruption cases. There would be further engagements to locate these delays and their causes. She allowed the Department delegation to leave.

Committee Report on amendments to Child Justice Act regulations
The Chairperson asked Members to comment. The Committee was briefed on the amendments on 20 April which were merely consequential amendments.

Mr G Michalakis (DA, Free State) expressed no intention to object or approve the amendments and chose to abstain from the process of adoption.

 There were no objections to the amendments and the Committee adopted the report.

Committee Report on Department of Police, CSPS, IPID 2022/23 Annual Performance Plan
The Chairperson called for any amendments to be made to the report.

There were no amendments and the Committee adopted the report with no objections and abstentions. The Chairperson thanked the Committee for attending and adjourned the meeting.