JUSTICE
AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Speech by Ms Brigitte Mabandla, MP, Minister for Justice and Constitutional
Development, during a briefing to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and
Constitutional Development, on Tuesday, 06 May 2008, at Parliament, Cape Town
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee; Deputy Minister;
Members of the Portfolio Committee; Ladies and Gentlemen;
I would like to express my appreciation, on behalf of my Department, to the
Committee for inviting us to brief the Committee on the primary mandate of the
Department within the broader context of our national goals.
It is an important occasion in which we hope to establish an understanding on
the key policy priorities of the Department, and how these will be funded and
accounted for.
Express gratitude on behalf of department to the committee on the ongoing work
of transforming the justice system for the benefit of all the people of SA.
Thus eliminating the inequities of the past and entrenching the values in our
constitution and providing an anchor to the socioeconomic transformation of our
society, in particular eliminating poverty and improving education.
Providing access to justice is key objective of our department. Improving our
capacity to deliver justice to all, is an imperative for the reform we have
undertaken. Thus enhancing organization efficiency is important.
We have also placed emphasis on the transformation of the judicial and legal
system.
Chairperson,
During the past financial year we dealt with a number of challenges that we
needed to address. Some of these challenges were raised by the Portfolio
Committee and by the Auditor-General in our annual report. I will give an
overview of some of these matters during this briefing and the Director -
General and his team will expand on these issues later today and tomorrow. The
Director-General will also reflect on some of the improvements we have made to
attend to the weaknesses which were identified by the Committee and the Auditor-General.
The challenges of financial management that we have been seized with during the
past financial year include, inter alia;
·
Eliminating
under-expenditure
·
Improving
efficiency in the justice system
Expenditure
Trends
Honourable Members;
We all know that my Department had challenges of under-expenditure in the
previous financial years. For example, in the financial year 2006/7 we only
spent 92, 7% of our budget. We had an under expenditure of R472, 393 million.
I am very pleased to report that in the financial year 2007/8 we spent 97, 7%
of our budget, and we reduced our under-expenditure from R472 million in
2006/07 to R170, 192 million in 2007/08. Part of the reason for the
under-expenditure is the dependency on the Department of Public Works to submit
their invoices on time. Finally, personnel and operational expenditure was on
99, 4% with the only area of under spending being expenditure on the
procurement of Buildings and Fixed Structures (77, 2%). While this is not
perfect, we certainly hope to do better even this financial year.
Budgets
Between 2007/08 and 2010/11, the Department's budget is expected to increase at
an average annual rate of 10 per cent, from R8.5 billion to R11.7 billion.
(This includes direct charges against the National Revenue Fund.) The largest
part of this increase goes towards improving the capacity at courts, and
appointing more prosecutors, public defenders and judicial officers.
The 2008 Budget sets out additional allocations of R256.3 million in 2008/09,
R404.5 million in 2009/10 and R537.8 million in 2010/11 to attend to: IT
modernisation projects in the Department, improvement of services; increases in
the compensation of employees to implement the 2007 resolution of the Public
Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council; adjustments to inflation;
accommodation charges; more human resource capacity in the Legal Aid Board; and
appointing more judges and magistrates.
The Department has identified efficiency savings of R 178. 7 million in
operational expenditure, particularly subsistence and travel costs, which
include accommodation costs, air- and road travel, and car rental costs.
Of the R1.5 billion available over the MTEF period for infrastructure
investment, 39.4 per cent (or R591 million) will be spent on large
infrastructure projects, 26.3 per cent (R395 million) on small projects, and 32
per cent (R480 million) on maintenance projects.
Issues raised by seop A
SCOPA has raised certain weaknesses that needed our urgent attention and
this included Asset Management, Management of Monies-in- Trust, Under-spending
and Supply Chain Management. A project manager and project management teams
were established to perform an independent stock take on movable assets. The
due date for the completion of the accurate asset register is 15 May 2008. 284
asset controllers were trained in 2007/8 to improve efficiency in the
management of assets.
With regard to Monies-in- Trust a tender evaluation process has been concluded
and services providers were given the opportunity to submit best and final
offers. The tender process will be concluded by July 2008 to commence with
contract negotiation with the successful bidder. The service provider will be
expected to conclude the system development by September/October 2008 for full
implementation to commence in January 2009.
On under-spending the Department manage to substantially increase financial
performance with a 5% increase in overall spending
spending increasing from 92, 7% to 97, 7 %. The improved spending was a result
of the timeous identification in the in year budget reviews of possible savings
and the virement of savings to other priority areas. These re allocation of
projected savings was confirmed through parliamentary approval during the
adjusted estimates, approval by the accounting officer and national treasury
approval as prescribed in the PFMA. Funds were reallocated in August and
November as prescribed by the budget management framework of the Department -
considering the spending priorities needs of the department, NPA and LAB
Funding was re allocated to fund, inter alia, scanners for scanning court
documentation, the CCTV court recording solution for children's courts, IT
hardware renewal for ISM component, case backlog reduction in LBA and Salary
shortfall for the SI U
The timeous reallocation of projected savings resulted in a reduction of the
last month expenditure with March expenditure being 13% of final expenditure
compared with 16 % in previous years. This prior planning eliminated the
perception of fiscal dumping.
In order to improve the functioning of procurement activities the Accounting
officer approved a revised personnel establishment (structure) for the supply
chain management division in full compliance with the supply chain management
framework as prescribed by National Treasury. Fifteen positions have been
advertised and the selection process is underway. Additional 19 positions will
be advertised shortly after the job evaluation process has been completed.
Access to justice
Colleagues, comrades
I want to indicate that enabling the citizens to access justice is a key
component of our transformation agenda and the relevant components in this
regard is court services. We are providing courts where there were none before.
Chairperson,
In the last financial year we significantly increased our capacity in key areas
affecting the performance of our courts. This includes recruiting key admin
staff such as court managers, clerks, maintenance officers, as well as judges
and magistrates. We were able to reduce our vacancy rates from the previous
230/0 to 12%
The modernisation of our courts has been one of our key achievements. We
trained hundreds of officials on the use of our justice deposit account system
which has improved our ability to process maintenance payments.
Courts have been built and opened in rural and previously disadvantaged areas.
Those that have been completed and are ready for official opening this year
are:
·
Daveyton
·
Middledrift
·
Sekgosese
·
Waterval
The
Department will this year complete the construction of the following 5 courts
and 5 additions! conversions to existing courts:
·
Tsakane
Magistrate court
·
Mitchells
Plain Magistrate court
·
Richmond
Magistrate court
·
Augrabies
Magistrate court
·
Polokwane
High Court interim
·
Stanger
Magistrate court
·
Colesberg
Magistrate court
·
Kagiso
Magistrate court
·
Ekangala
Magistrate court
The
Department has also commenced with the development process for the following
courts:
·
Soweto
Magistrate court (Prioritised)
·
Mamelodi
Magistrate court
·
Ntuzuma
Magistrate court
·
High
court for Mpumalanga (Priority)
·
High
court for Limpopo (Priority)
·
Judicial
Training Institute Campus
The
Department is going to focus on continuing with the momentum established in the
previous year. In our attempt to achieve our vision of enabling access to
justice, and improving efficiency in the justice system as a whole we are going
to focus, amongst others, on the re-designation of certain courts to build
capacity in the courts to increase access to justice. The spatial distribution
of most of the magistrates courts still reflect the old system of demarcation
which was based on racial and geo-political separation which created vast
disparities in the court infrastructure and resources in the former White and
Black areas. In terms of this dispensation better equipped courts were
established in historically white areas, while communities living in the
townships and former Bantustans were served through Branch Courts and
Periodical Courts. These Branch Courts and Periodical Courts, in contrast to
the other courts provide limited services relating to criminal law
adjudication. These courts do not have their defined areas of jurisdiction but
exercise the jurisdiction of the main court in the district. Neither do they
have any budget or staff of their own but are dependent on the main courts in
the urban areas and cities for administrative support services. There are 90
Branch Courts and 246 periodical courts. Most of the periodical courts are in
police stations, while a few are on private farms. While Periodical Courts on
private farms have ceased to operate, processes are underway to phase out those
in the police stations. Accessible sites are being identified to establish
circuit courts to replace the police-based periodical courts.
Twenty three of the 90 Branch Courts will be re-designated as full courts with
effect from 01 August 2008 or as soon as it is practical. The re-designation of
the identified Branch Courts will have a huge impact on service delivery. These
courts will provide a full range of justice services, namely criminal cases,
civil disputes, family law services and services of the Master of the High
Court. We would want to eradicate by the end of 2009, this systematic,
demographic delineation that marginalised our people from accessing justice,
and restore the human dignity of the communities who endured these injustices
of the past. Of the 23 Branch Courts that will be re-designated, 10 are in
Gauteng and 3 in KwaZulu-Natal, while the other provinces share the rest.
The following are some of the immediate benefits for the poor communities
living in former Bantustans and former townships:
Reduction of travelling costs: In most instances the Branch Courts and
their corresponding courts in the main districts are located far apart. For
example the Poffader Branch Court in the Northern Cape is more than 200
kilometers from its main court in Kenhardt. People living in the proximity of
the Branch Courts still have to commute, at great expense, to access services
such as maintenance and claims for deceased estates from the courts in the main
districts and this results in hardship and prejudice for the vulnerable members
of our society. The re-designation of the Branch Courts into proper courts will
bring great relief to these communities.
Alleviation of the congestion in the main courts: Most of the main
courts in the district are congested and the infrastructure is stretched to the
limit due to over crowding. For example the extension of maintenance and other
family law services to courts in Soweto will reduce the number of people served
by the Family Court In Johannesburg by more than 60%.
Re-designation will be commensurate with some of the developments taking
place in certain areas: Places such as Midrand and Khayelitsha are growing
rapidly and the re-designation of the Branch Courts in those areas is a
necessary consequence to meet the future needs of the community in those areas.
Re-designation will lead to efficient management of resources: The
current practice whereby resources deployed in the Branch Courts are managed
from the main courts in the towns and cities leads to poor management and the
quality of service delivered is compromised. The re-designation of these courts
will bring the management of services right to the service delivery points and
thereby reduce the current wastage and time spent by officials in commuting
between the main court and Branch Courts.
The review of the criminal justice system is currently undertaken in
partnership with Business Against Crime. It focuses on, among others:
·
The
establishment of a new coordinating and management structure for the Criminal
Justice System at all levels
·
The
establishment of an integrated and seamless national CJS It database/system
containing all information relevant to the CJS, and review and harmonise the
template for gathering information relating to the CJS.
·
The
modernisation, in an integrated and holistic manner, of all aspects of the
system and equipment of the CJS
Legislative
programme
The year under
review was a productive one as far as the Department's Legislative Programme is
concerned. During the year under review, nine important Bills were introduced
into Parliament. These Bills deal with issues ranging from judicial training,
judicial accountability, discretionary minimum sentences, the reform of the
customary law of succession, civil jurisdiction of Regional Courts and
Traditional courts.
Mention should also be made of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related
Matters) Amendment Bill, which was finalised by Parliament at the end of 2007.
This ground-breaking law revolutionises the outdated law relating to sexual
offences. Most of its provisions came into operation on 16 December 2007.
The Child Justice Bill is being considered by the Committee.
A number of other important Bills has been finalised and introduced into
Parliament, namely:
·
The
Jurisdiction of Regional Courts Amendment Bill, which confers civil
jurisdiction on the Regional Courts. This Bill will correct the anomaly brought
into our court system in when the Regional Courts were established in 1952
under the apartheid system. The immediate consequences of this legislation will
ease the hardship and prejudices of the vulnerable poor members of society who
are compelled by the current system to seek legal redress in remote courts,
some times beyond the provinces where they reside.
·
The
Traditional Courts Bill, which will establish a niche for the traditional
leaders in promoting social cohesion and restorative justice. We look forward to be guided by the Committee on this matter.
·
The
Renaming of High Courts, which is intended to address the undesirable situation
where certain High Courts are still referred to by their names under the
previous constitutional dispensation.
Legislation
dealing with floor crossing, the Directorate of Special Operations, and to
regulate the postponement of certain criminal proceedings by means of
audio-visual linkage and to provide for the expungement of criminal records
will be introduced soon.
Transformation of the judiciary and the legal sector
There has been a huge debate in the country over the concept of the
transformation of the judiciary. The debate takes various forms. A policy
document is being drafted on these aspects and will be released soon. Another
key aspect of the transformative agenda is the need to establish professional
skills within the judiciary. The South African Judicial Education Institute
Bill is a positive outcome of this transformative agenda. The Bill has been
approved by the National Assembly and. it is receiving the attention of the
Select preliminary budget to commence with the establishment of the Institute.
The Heads of Courts have been discussing the matter and in time we will receive
suggestions on how best to proceed with the matter. Obviously there are other
stakeholders who will be consulted in this process.
Gender
Honourable Members,
We have been seized with strengthening state capacity and the promotion of
women's rights. The Department in collaboration with all state institutions
working for the advancement of women's rights has developed education and
promotional materials. The formation of the South African Woman Lawyers
Association, (SAWLA) is another milestone. This is an association of qualified
women lawyers in the country. Its aims and objectives are to promote access to
justice and improve professional expertise for women in law, and to advance
equity in the distribution of work to women in the legal sector.
We have also made some strides to improve the under representation of women in
the High Court bench. 19 women practitioners have recently underwent a
specially designed judicial education programme to enhance their opportunity to
be appointed to the judges position and they will be appointed to acting judges
positions soon. Another intake of 23 women will undergo the same programme from
June 2008.
International Cooperation
Pursuant to our Government Policy and the United Nations Security Council
Resolution, 1325, (2000) the Department convened the African Regional Meeting
on Gender Justice in Cape Town on 21 -23 March 2007. Ministers and high level
delegates, in particular
women from the following countries participated in the session, Angola,
Burundi, Cote d'ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Mozambique,
Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Southern Sudan, Sweden and Southern Sudan.
The meeting agreed to issue a request to the Secretary-General of the United
Nations to call for a thematic debate in the UN Security Council. The latter
debate was subsequently held in October 2007. The Department has developed a
programme for the exchange of experience and expertise on justice matters with
a particular focus on gender justice within and among conflict affected
countries in Africa such as Liberia and Southern Sudan.
Honourable Members,
The Department has embarked on a programme to assist the DRC in improving the
DRC's court system, in particular the training of the DRC magistrates and
assisting in setting up the relevant courts' IT infrastructure.
The Department has forged partnerships with Monuc's Rule of Law Unit and Mecer
on the training of DRC magistrates and assistance in setting the IT
infrastructure respectively. The Government of France, in particular, the
Ministry of Justice has been approached with a proposal to become a partner on
the training of the DRC magistrates.
We will continue to improve the integrity of the department. As you will notice
most senior managers have signed performance agreements. Most of them have
signed declarations and we have improved our rate of resolving our disciplinary
cases
Conclusion,
Once again thank you for inviting us to this Portfolio Committee briefing today
and I wish you all well in the year ahead.
Thank you!