Question NW1480 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
02 June 2023 - NW1480
Arries, Ms LH to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
What measures has he put in place to ensure that accused offenders with minor offences will not be held in custody unnecessarily for a longer period, because their bail applications could not be processed due to the fact that 419 courts are dysfunctional during load shedding?
Reply:
All arrested offenders must appear before a lower court within 48 hours. During the first appearance, when an accused is brought to court in custody, the court must determine if the accused can be released from custody, either on warning or on bail. It is seldom that accused offenders with minor offences will not be released on bail or on warning.
The enquiry done by the court to decide on the release of an accused offender with minor offences, most of the time, consists of oral addresses by the prosecutor and accused offender or his/her legal representative. The court will only hear oral testimony under oath in cases where the State objects to the accused offender to be released on bail, and these will be in cases where more serious offences are involved. The applications for bail in minor offences are thus not impacted by loadshedding, as no oral testimony under oath must be heard by the court.
Even in extraordinary cases, if the court is required to hear oral testimony during a bail application where it relates to a minor offence, these cases receive preference and will be heard during time available in court outside of the period of loadshedding.