Question NW2500 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services

Reply:

In terms of our law, there is no specific crime called gender-based violence. As a result, a need for the determination of a category of crimes that constitute gender-based violence has been identified. The Department has therefore established a Task Team constituted by the judiciary, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the civil society organisations to define a category of GBVF- related crimes, which will encapsulate the relevant statutory and common law offences. The ultimate goal is to have an integrated repository of all GBVF-related crimes on the Integrated Justice System Transversal Hub where the criminal justice actors can have an agile communication and sharing of data. The work of this Task Team is expected to be finalised before the end of this financial year.

In the meantime, the Department collects data of all criminal cases, including GBVF-related criminal cases, registered by the lower courts in the Integrated Case Management System (ICMS). As soon as a category of GBVF-related crimes is determined by the Task Team, the Department will enhance the existing repository to provide disaggregated data of GBVF-related criminal cases registered and managed by our lower courts.

Against this backdrop, this reply will therefore focus on sexual offences, domestic violence criminal offences and femicide cases registered by our courts.

Sexual Offences

a) With regard to sexual offences matters, since 1 January 2022 our lower courts registered a pending caseload of 16 781 sexual offences cases of which 6 026 were backlog cases. What this means is that 39.5% of the pending cases of sexual offences were backlog cases.

b) The NPA has reported that during the period 1 January 2022 to 31 July 2022, a total of 1 994 convictions were obtained from 2 673 cases of sexual offences finalised with a verdict. These convictions amounted to a 74.6% conviction rate.

As reported by the NPA, many of the pending cases of sexual offences are due to the delayed submission of DNA reports by SAPS to the NPA. In the previous financial year, the Deputy Ministers for Justice and Constitutional Development and Police set up a Task Team with representations from DoJ&CD, SAPS and NPA to address challenges relating to the DNA backlog reports. I have been informed that this collaborative continues to yield the expected outputs. As at 31 March 2022, SAPS finalised 7 618 DNA reports which increased the number of trial-ready cases of sexual offences managed by NPA.

Domestic Violence Criminal Cases

a) With regard to criminal cases of domestic violence, since 1 January 2022 our district courts registered a volume of 3 856 domestic violence criminal cases of which 348 cases were backlog cases.

b) From 1 January 2022 up to 31 July 2022, 1 762 of the 3 856 domestic violence cases were finalised with a verdict.

Femicide (Murder) Cases

a) In our law there is no specific crime called ‘femicide’, but the NPA captures statistics on both femicide and Intimate Partner Femicide cases. However, no record of backlog cases in femicide cases is kept as all cases of this nature are registered as murder cases.

b) During the period 1 January 2022 and 31 July 2022, the number of femicide cases finalised with a verdict was 284 of which 271 resulted in convictions. The conviction rate in the femicide cases amounted to 95.4%.

During the same period, a total of 221 verdicts were handed down in cases relating to Intimate Partner Femicide. From these 221 verdicts, a total of 206 convictions were obtained, thus registering a conviction rate of 93.2%.

It must however be noted that the core drivers for case backlogs are contributed by the different actors in the criminal justice system. Blockages to the speedy finalisation of cases can also be traced from the diverse value service points that feed into the court system. For this reason, the Department cannot resolve all challenges of case backlogs alone. The Department, with the support of the ministry, is therefore in the process of establishing the National Integrated Criminal Court Optimisation Steering Committee (NICCO SteerCo), which will draw representation from the judiciary and other key stakeholders in the criminal justice system. The aim of this collaborative is to collectively identify and remove stoppers that delay the realisation of a criminal justice system that quick, responsive and effective.

The Department has also developed a Criminal Case Backlog Action Plan, which gives priority to cases relating to gender-based violence and femicide. The implementation of this Plan is coordinated, facilitated and monitored by the Criminal Case Backlogs Committee which meets every month.

The Department has further included an indicator in the Annual Performance Plan which seeks to monitor the reasons for postponements which occur as a consequence of inadequacies in the support provided by the Department, e.g. postponements due to administrative staff, water shortages, power cuts, etc.

END