ATC150923: Report of the Select Committee on Security and Justice on an oversight visit to the Matlosana One Stop Child Justice Centre, North West Province, dated 23 September 2015.

NCOP Security and Justice

Report of the Select Committee on Security and Justice on an oversight visit to the Matlosana One Stop Child Justice Centre, North West Province, dated 23 September 2015.

 

1. Introduction and Terms of Reference

 

1. The Committee, as mandated by the Constitution and Rules of the National Council of Provinces, undertook an oversight visit to the town of Klerksdorp to the Matlosana One Stop Child Justice Centre in the North West Province on 20 August 2015. The aim of the oversight was to:

 

1. Tour the facility;
2. Receive a briefing from the various departments on the profile of the centre, its day to day operations and successes;
3. Identify the implementation and operational challenges of the One Stop Child Justice Centre (OSCJC) and solutions to rectify these challenges.

 

1. Delegation

 

1. The oversight delegation consisted of: 

 

Province	Political Party	Present
Eastern Cape	African National Congress	Hon Ms T Wana
Free State	African National Congress	Hon Mr MJ Mohapi
Gauteng	Democratic Alliance	Hon Mr JWW Julius
KwaZulu-Natal	African National Congress	Hon Mr LPM Nzimande
	Democratic Alliance	Hon Mr M Chetty
Limpopo	African National Congress	Hon Mr SG Thobejane
Mpumalanga	African National Congress	Hon Mr MT Mhlanga
Northern Cape	African National Congress	Hon Ms GM Manopole
North West	Economic Freedom Fighters	Hon Ms TJ Mokwele
Western Cape	African National Congress	Hon Mr DL Ximbi (Committee Chairperson)

 

The following parliamentary staff supported the Committee: Mr G Dixon – Committee Secretary, Ms A Van Der Burg – Content Advisor, Ms P Whittle – Committee Researcher and Mr L Ben – Committee Assistant.

 

1. Broad Overview of the Child Justice Act, 2008 and the One Stop Child Justice Centre

 

Section 89 of the Child Justice Act, 2008 (Act 75 of 2008) provides for the establishment and jurisdiction of One-Stop Child Justice Centres. The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, in consultation with the Minister of Social Development, Police and Correctional Services, may establish these Centres and each of these Ministers is severally responsible for the provisioning of resources and services by their respective Departments.

 

The objective of the Child Justice Act is to promote co-operation between Government Departments and between Government Departments and the Non-Governmental sector and Civil Society organisations, to ensure an integrated and holistic approach in the implementation of the Act and the needs of the child.

 

An OSCJC must have a child justice court and may include offices for use by:

• Members of the South African Police Service;
• Probation officers;
• Legal representatives of children;
• Diversion service providers;
• Persons authorised to trace the families of children;
• Correctional supervision officials;
• A children’s court; and
• Any other relevant facility.

 

The OSCJC may also include facilities to temporarily accommodate children pending the conclusion of the preliminary inquiry.

 

The core feature of OSCJC is that it is based on the concept of co-ordinated, co-operative service provision by a range of role-players and service providers, from Government and Non-Governmental Organisations in one place.

 

1. Tour of the Matlosana One Stop Child Justice Centre:

 

1. Background

 

The Matlosana Centre was designated as an OSCJC in February 2013, and subsequently launched in August 2013.

 

The Matlosana Centre consists of a secure care facility operated by the Department of Social Development but managed by BOSASA, a private entity and a Children’s Court comprising holding cells, victim friendly facilities, private interview rooms, offices and the magistrates court.

 

1. Jurisdiction

The Matlosana Centre’s area of jurisdiction has been defined and increased by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services in terms of section 89(6)(a) and (b) of the Child Justice Act, 2008 (Act 75 of 2008) and consists of the following districts, sub-districts and other areas of jurisdiction created by section 2 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act, 1944 (Act 32 of 1944):

 

1. Areas falling under the jurisdiction of Matlosana OSCCJ

Lists of Areas falling under Matlosana OSCJC
Potchefstroom	Stilfontein	Hartbeesfontein
Ikaneng	Stilfontein Gold Mines	Tshing
Wolmaransstad	Khuma	Christiana
Klerksdorp	Orkney	Bloemhof
Jouberton	Kanana	Schweizer-Reneke

 

 

1. Matlosana Secure Care Facility

 

The Department of Social Development is responsible for the establishment of the Matlosana Secure Care Facility (MSCF) and in terms of its roles and responsibilities, the Department of Social Development is responsible for the following services at the MSCF:

1. developmental assessment;
2. family tracing; 
3. pre-trial and pre-sentencing reports;
4. diversion services;
5. psychosocial services;
6. advocacy and public education;
7. counselling;
8. home based supervision;
9. family group conferencing;
10. facilitation of restorative justice programs;
11. placement recommendations;
12. capacity building and training;
13. age estimations; and
14. co-ordination of National and Provincial Child Justice Forums.

 

The Department of Social Development outsourced the management of the MSCF to a private company, namely the Bosasa Group of Companies, specifically its Bosasa Youth Development Centre. It provides highly secured premises with a modern infrastructure offering a reception area and an administration block providing intersectoral services to child offenders.

 

Once a child is arrested by the Police and referred to the MSCF, BOSASA will register the child on its internal information management system known as the Task Master Information Management System. The Bosasa system is meant to be linked with the Department of Social Development’s information management system at a later date. If the child is already registered, the system will verify the child’s age and previous criminal record.     

 

The child is then integrated into the MSCF and assigned a bed and locker. The MSCF supplies the child with 6 meals a day according to the child’s health assessment as reported by the health practitioner. The meals consist of breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, a mid-afternoon snack, supper and an evening snack before bed time.

 

Children housed in this facility can enjoy access to the recreational area; dormitory section with bedrooms; education block with a computer area; a therapy room; kitchen and catering area; and a sports field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Court operations

 

1. Day-to-day operation of the Centre

 

• The court sits three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday;
• The police transport children to and from the court;
• The probation officer compiles the assessment report and sends it to the Prosecutor for a decision;
• The prosecutor decides whether the matter may be diverted or referred to the child justice court for plea and trial;
• Upon finalisation of the case it is referred to the clerk of the court for capturing on the Integrated Case Management System (ICMS).

 

1. Statistics

 

1. Preliminary inquiries

A preliminary inquiry is part of an informal pre-trial procedure which is inquisitorial in nature. It is an inquiry that may be conducted in a court of law or any other suitable place.

 

A preliminary inquiry must be held in respect of every child who is alleged to have committed an offence, except where:

1. the matter has been diverted by a prosecutor;
2. the child is under the age of 10 years; or
3. the matter has been withdrawn.

 

A child’s appearance at a preliminary inquiry is regarded as his or her first appearance before a lower court, in terms of section 50 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (section 43 of the Act).

 

During the reporting period there has been an increase in the number of preliminary inquiries conducted, as compared with the corresponding period in 2013/2014. The number of preliminary inquiries conducted over a number of reporting periods is reflected in the table below as follows:

 

1. Outcome of Preliminary Inquiries:

Period	New PI’s	Referred to Children’s Court	Diverted	Transferred to Child Justice Court	Withdrawn	Struck off the roll
2013/2014	161	8	44	6	24	20
2013/2015	286	41	61	88	88	46

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Outcome of trials in the child justice court:

Period	New matters	Postponed during trial	Guilty	Not guilty/ acquitted	Withdrawn	Struck off the roll	Referred to Children’s Court	Diverted
2013/2014	120	54	0	1	24	20	8	0
2014/2015	267	30	9	3	48	50	41	10

 

An increase in the numbers of new matters in the child justice court has been recorded during 2014/2015.

 

 

1. Provincial Achievements in the Implementation of the Child Justice Act

The following are some of the achievements in the Province in the implementation of the Child Justice Act:

 

1. The court was constituted on 22 February 2013 by the former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Minister Jeffrey Radebe;
2. Stakeholders have been working together in an integrated manner;
3. A lot of cases are disposed at preliminary inquiry level;
4. Most of the cases are diverted, few are sent for trial;
5. Probation officers are available to conduct assessments of children;
6. NGOs (such as Kgorogo and Khulisa) are active in the Province;
7. Children sentenced in terms of section 76 of the Child Justice Act , 2008 to compulsory residence in child and youth care centres are referred to one (1) centre (girls only) with the involvement of the Department of Education;
8. An anti-gangsterism organisation was been established by an ex- offender who has been rehabilitated, in order to help the children involved in gangsterism to withdraw from gangs.

 

1. Provincial Challenges in the Implementation of the Child Justice Act

The following challenges were identified by the Cluster:

Lack of a contractual intergovernmental relationship between the relevant organs of State	Trained all stakeholders with regard to their Roles and Responsibilities for two days at Rustenburg Hunters Rest on the 30-31 July 2015.
Jurisdiction Not all areas are covered in North West.	Amendment of the Proclamation
Lack of Child and Youth Care Centres, previously known as reformatory schools and school of industry particularly for boys, to accommodate sentenced children.	A study was underway to determine alternatives.
Unavailability of existing buildings that can be converted into One Stop Child Justice Centres in high offending areas	The Viability Study for the Establishment of OSCJCs will address this challenge
No provision has been made for child offenders and their guardians to be paid a fee for lunch when attending court.	The Provincial Inter-sectoral Committee must make provision to cater for the needs of the children and minders sitting at court.

 

 

1. The SAPS indicated that the Klerksdorp cluster has 7 police stations and diverts children to the Matlosana OSCJC. The Matlosana OSCJC also serves the Potchefstroom cluster and the Wolmeranstad cluster.

 

1. The SAPS experienced the following challenges:

1. The Resource Allocation Guide (RAG) structure does not make provision for the placement of SAPS members at OSCJC as the have to be deployed on a 24hr basis.
2. Due to limited number of OSCJC, members are compelled to travel long distances between OSCJC and the police stations when transporting children. This also affects parents without means of transport when visiting children.
3. Probation officers are not available after hours or on weekends and public holidays.
4. When children living on the street are arrested, and no parents are available, they are not allowed to be detained at the OSCJC and there is no time given within which to trace their parents.
5. No follow ups are made by the probation officers on children already assessed or diverted and when the same juveniles re-offend.
6. Day to day maintenance of the cells must be done as showers are not working, taps are leaking and mattresses are in a bad condition. The problem relates to the limited budget given to the Department of Social Development for maintenance of the OSCJC. Although SAPS is responsible for the cells, the maintenance budget lies with the Department of Social Development.
7. There is no line of communication available to SAPS officials at the OSCJC. They are unable to call for investigation officers when needed.

 

 

1. Issues requiring assistance from Parliament

1. The establishment of a parole board in respect of the Child Justice Act needs to be explored for child offenders who have been sentenced in terms of section 76, to qualify for early release similar to children sentenced to imprisonment.
2. Lack of adequate budget – costing of the CJA has been conducted before implementation but challenges remain. These challenges mainly relate to integrated planning, coordination, human resource capacity, budgets and other fundamental resources.

 

 

 

 

 

1. Concluding remarks and recommendations

 

1. Members were concerned that not all departments were cooperating in the spirit of the Act and members advised that, in the interest of the child, departments must meet regularly and render assistance immediately where shortcomings are identified.
2. The Department of Basic Education must conduct oversight on OSCJC’s to determine if educators were qualified and implementing the relevant curriculum.
3. The outsourcing of the MSCF to private companies must have a stipulated end date for hand over to the Department of Social Development. Members noted that OSCJC must be properly managed by the state itself, and that outsourcing of services should not be a permanent situation.
4. The Matlosana OSCJC court did not have the most practical infrastructure.

The offices were too small and the children were often not held in comfortable surroundings. The court became cramped when too many children appeared on the same day. The Provincial Inter-sectoral Committee must review the space requirements of the court and plan for structural improvements to improve the space limitations.

1. The Committee awaits the report on the analysis of OSCJC’s currently underway by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

 

 

 

Report to be considered.