Question NW988 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services

Reply:

a) The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD) does not own any land or property. However it uses state owned properties that are under the custodianship of the National Department of Public Works.

In the effort of executing its mandate of administration of justice, the DoJ&CD’s Courts make use of physical assets in the form of courts and office buildings. The Department is accommodated in 672 state-owned properties and is leasing only 120 buildings mainly offices throughout the country. In an effort to strike a balance, the composition of the Departments portfolio lies within an acceptable ratio of 80% state owned and 20% leased building.

b) The entities reporting to me have reported as follows:

(i) LEGAL AID SOUTH AFRICA:

Legal Aid SA owns seven (7) pieces of land per the table below. All properties are used for as Legal Aid SA’s local offices.

No.	Local Office	Physical Address	ERF M2	Building M2	Usage
Gauteng Province
1.	National Office	ERF 4410 29 de Beer Street Braamfontein	1,490	8,289	Used as Legal Aid SA’s National Office
2.	Krugersdorp	ERF 1737 51 Burger Street Krugersdorp, Mogale City Gauteng 1740	495	1,298	Krugersdorp local office (Refurbishment in progress and will be occupied on 01 June 2018)
3.	Benoni	ERF 884 18 Howard Avenue Benoni 1501	595	1,696	Benoni local office. (Refurbishment will commence on 01 June 2018 and will be occupied on 01 October 2018)
North-West Province
4.	Litchenburg	ERF 1956 25 Bantjies Street Litchenburg 2740	1,086	258	Lichtenburg local office
	Free State Province
5.	Welkom	Archiquant Building 8 Heerent Street Welkom 9460	373	1,073	Welkom local office
Mpumalanga Province
6.	Middleburg	ERF 408 Middleburg Township Tshwete Local Municipality 1050	996	616	Middelburg local office
7.	Witbank	ERF 109 17 Botha Street, Witbank Mpumalanga Province 1035	2,231	1,548	Witbank local office

N.B: The Polokwane and Mitchells Plain Offices operate directly from court buildings maintained by the State.

The Nelspruit Office will in the near future operate from a state owned court building.

(ii) SPECIAL INVESTIGATING UNIT

The Special Investigating Unit does not rent or/and have any exclusive rights on any State owned land.