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MOVING JUSTICE FORWARD!

Madam Speaker
The Deputy President
Honourable Members
Ladies and Gentlemen

Thirty-seven years ago today, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and others, were sentenced to life imprisonment for daring the might of the apartheid state. It is thanks to them and many others that we are able to stand here this afternoon and make the remarks that I am about to make about our justice system.

1. INTRODUCTION

When I reported to this honourable House last year, I identified the challenges my Department had to meet for the 21st century. Today, four days from the end of my second year in office, I am happy to report on the progress made in meeting these challenges and the goals the Department has set itself for the new financial year.

I would like to thank, at the outset, the Justice Portfolio Committee and, in particular, the chairperson, Adv Johnny de Lange, for the usual work of sterling quality and interventions, which influenced legislation for the benefit of the country.

2. REPORT ON PROGRESS

Madam Speaker, allow me immediately to turn to the issues raised in my last report to this House.

2.1. Leveraging greater efficiencies and a more effective management it is well known that our Government seeks to develop and strengthen our public-private partnerships in strategic areas. In this regard, I reported last year on our engagement of senior business executives in the review and finalisation of our strategic plans and change management process within the Department. One such business leader, Paul Heinemann, is in the audience here this afternoon

I am extremely delighted to report excellent progress in this area. We have identified our strategic objectives and vision and agreed to a radical restructuring of our Department.

A Board of Directors similar to that of a private company now advises the Department. Serving as Directors on the Board, are both executive and non-executive members drawn from the private sector of our economy.

The CEO, who is also the accounting officer, and the managing directors of seven business units serve as executive members of the Board. These self-contained business units have clear responsibilities, and are made accountable to the Board for their performance. Among these business units are four line function structures dealing with all Court Services, Legal Services, Legislation and Constitutional Development and the Masters Office. The four supporting business units, which are designed to formulate policy at a national level, are the office of the Chief Financial Officer, Human Resources, Public Education and Communication, and Information and Systems Management. In the restructuring process, my Department has given prominence to the Masters Division by elevating it to one of its core functions. It is imperative that the operations of the unit in the provinces be restructured in order to pave the way for the absorption of interstate Black Estates. This need is immediate.

I am extremely confident that the process we have embarked upon will yield significant service delivery benefits and hopefully serve as a model for the rest of government.

Before I step off this particular topic, I wish to report on developments relating to the judiciary. The Ministry, together with senior officials of the Department, met on 2 April 2001 in Cape Town with the President of the Constitutional Court, the acting Chief Justice and other senior members of the Judiciary to discuss policy issues relating to the structure and functioning of the courts. The commitment of the Judiciary to transformation was reaffirmed.

The meeting agreed on the following broad principles relating to the judiciary:

* The head of the Judiciary should be the head of the Constitutional Court who will be the Chief Justice and will chair the Judicial Service Commission and perform other constitutional and statutory functions presently divided between the President of the Constitutional Court and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeal.

* The Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal will not be merged.

* The Labour Appeal Court will continue to be the final Court of Appeal in all labour matters.

* All impediments to the complete independence of Magistrates should be removed.

The meeting appointed a task team consisting of members of the Judiciary, officials of the Department and the National Director of Public Prosecutions to prepare a document on the Constitution and other laws, which may require amendment in order to give effect to the policy perspective agreed upon. The task team will also attend to outstanding matters, which require further discussion and consultation. A bill to amend the relevant sections of the Constitution is already before Cabinet.

2.2. Making our Courts more accessible to all

We are committed to continuing our focus on court infrastructure and the upgrading of our Courts will remain a major challenge. Significant progress is substantiated by 56 new courtrooms at 19 court buildings, which were completed during 1999, as well as a further 88 new courtrooms at 28 court buildings, which were constructed during 2000. Most of these projects have been undertaken in previously disadvantaged rural areas of our country and will undoubtedly contribute to the goal of bringing justice closer to the people. The projects include five-community safety centres founded on an integrated and one-stop service basis. In order to equip new buildings and to upgrade facilities of existing offices, an amount of R27,5 million was utilised for services, furniture and office machines.

The following areas, in provinces with the highest overall levels of crime, have been identified and will be piloted:
* Alexandra and Katlehong in Gauteng;
* Inanda and Kwa-Mashu in KwaZulu-Natal;
* Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape; and
* Mdantsane and Motherwell in the Eastern Cape.

We have also recently refurbished and constructed 7 new courtrooms in the west wing of the High Court in Cape Town. The project was launched last Wednesday.

3. OUR OBJECTIVES FOR THE NEW FINANCIAL YEAR

3.1. Financial Administration and Management

The Department's record in this regard has been less than satisfactory, to say the least. We have now put together measures that we believe will ensure compliance with the PFMA. We now have proper budget management structures in place, covering:
* Strategic management of budgeting;
* Allocation of the budget down to the lowest level of expenditure;
* Budget allocation and the establishment of the review committee; and
* Joint budgetary planning with our cluster partners.

Beyond this, our internal audit component, which is directly monitored by the audit committee, has been operating effectively. Furthermore, a fraud prevention strategy and a code of ethics have been finalised and a permanent fraud prevention committee appointed. We have also set up a 24-hour anti-fraud and corruption hotline.

In addition, I have called for, and we are in the process of establishing a costing and right-sizing unit to establish the cost from the zero-base of the delivery of an equitable justice system for all.

3.2 Security

Security in our courts has in the past few years deteriorated. Worse still, judicial officers, prosecutors and court staff have had their lives threatened. In view of the threats made to officials in the Western Cape, special measures have been put in place in collaboration with the South African Police Service and Intelligence Agencies. As regards the general security measures in our courts, we have allocated additional resources to increase our security cover this year by 100%. We will therefore be catering for at least about 40% of our offices countrywide. We intend to intensify our efforts in the coming years.

3.3 Improving court efficiency

3.3.1 Court management project

We have introduced and implemented the national lower court management system project, which has as its aim the separation of functions between the judiciary, administration and prosecution in all magistrates' offices. Administrative officials to allow court officials more time to concentrate on their judicial functions will carry out certain administrative functions previously performed by magistrates. Great progress has been made in the training of administrative officials over the past year. An office managers' pilot project, was implemented at the Johannesburg and Durban Magistrates' Courts. We now intend extending it to four other pilot sites.

We envisage the scenario of having properly trained professional managers for all our courts. We, however, require funds in order to create and fill the posts, which will certainly enhance court efficiency at all levels, as well as assisting us in consolidating the independence of the judiciary.

3.3.2 Training of court officials

Improving efficiency and skills at court level has been given priority. Since June 1997, six training programmes (sometimes referred to as "fast-track training") were presented to aspirant prosecutors by Justice College.

With the assistance of the law, race and gender unit of the University of Cape Town, Justice College succeeded in developing and presenting various social context-training programmes for departmental officials and magistrates.

Justice College also started presenting two- to three-day workshops dealing specifically with issues of domestic violence and maintenance.

During the past year we have trained 310 criminal court magistrates, 226 civil court magistrates, 534 prosecutors, 58 aspirant prosecutors and 77 interpreters.

A total of 76 magistrates received specialised social context training, 190 received training on the maintenance legislation and 42 child welfare officers received training. A total of 104 officials of the Department received training on the principles of administrative justice. 223 magistrates, 183 prosecutors and 226 clerks of the Department received training on Domestic Violence. It is a fact that 37,3% of our courts are not functioning well. It is no surprise that these courts, the remnants of the Apartheid era, are situated in rural areas in the former Bantustan areas, particularly in the Northern Province, the North West Province, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape. The following interventions are being implemented:

* Justice College has employed 15 tutors to engage on the job training for approximately 800 magistrates and 600 prosecutors, who had never before received any formal training.

* The upgrading of court structures and the re-prioritisation of Capital Works e.g. Tembisa, Daveyton and Malamulele.

* Integrated Justice System court centres to deal with bottlenecks.

3.4. E- justice Programme

Madam Speaker, the past year saw my Department working intensively to implement our e-Justice programme. This programme is designed to modernise our management systems and bring these in line with international best practice. The programme in its current phase involves:

* The provision of basic electronic infrastructure and connectivity;
* The development of a court and case management system; and
* The development of our financial administration systems.

The Court Process Project, which deals with the development of our case and court management system, is our flagship. The system, which is a proof of concept, has been developed and a demonstration thereof was launched last week here in Parliament. We anticipate that the system will be installed as from October 2001.

3.5. Awaiting trial prisoner project

The Awaiting Trial Prisoner Project (ATP project) was launched as a pilot project to address the excessively high number of prisoners awaiting trial, who are housed by the Department of Correctional Services. The objective of the project is to initiate collective actions within the criminal justice cluster of Departments to reduce the detention cycle time of awaiting trial persons in custody:

Pilot sites for the ATP-project were established between April and July 1999 at Durban, Empangeni, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria.

ATP-projects have subsequently been established at the following additional magistrate's offices: Middelburg; Wynberg (Western Cape); East London; Mdantsane; and Umtata.

The outcome of the ATP-projects at the pilot sites can be described as follows:

* By the end of March 2000, the average detention cycle time of offenders whose cases had been reviewed by project teams was reduced by 40% (i.e. from 122 days to 87 days).

* The circumstances of offenders were positively affected by speeding up trial dates; setting affordable bail; withdrawing cases with no prima facie evidence; and finalising cases sooner.

* Problematic issues that came to the fore were addressed on a continuous improvement basis by establishing corrective actions. Examples of these issues are subpoenas not completed properly, incomplete investigations; queries made by the public prosecutor and not complied with; addresses of accused not verified; alibis of (inter alia) accused not followed up;

* By July 2000, 6 323 cases had been reviewed by ATP teams, of which 55% (or 3 491 cases) were disposed of.

It is envisaged to introduce this initiative at 20 more sites throughout the country during the current financial year. The focus will be on those courts that are experiencing greater than average case backlogs. The experience in Middelburg has shown that over the period December 2000 to April 2001, the following successes were achieved:

* The average court hours per day increased from 3 hours 45 minutes to 5 hours.
* The number of cases finalised increased from 101 in December to 216 in April.
* The number of cases withdrawn due to dockets not being at court decreased from 20 to nil.

3.6 Finalisation of the re-demarcation process

The process of the re-demarcation of the magisterial districts is nearing its end. We hope to finalise the process during the current financial year.

4. Crime prevention and combating strategy

4.1 Commercial courts

The growing impact of commercially based crimes on business, both directly in terms of loss of profits and indirectly in terms of uncertainty of international investment, precipitated a collective effort by the justice cluster and various business associations, to address the deterioration in the ability of the 'justice system' to deal effectively with commercial crime.

The primary objectives of the project are the development of people, systems and infrastructure, in order to achieve improvements in performance (productivity and quality) through better planning and management of resources that will be measured by means of an agreed benchmark process.

The first special commercial court pilot project was established in Pretoria, with 13 specialised prosecutors. Since January 2000, 565 cases have registered, 123 of which are investigated, 124 are enrolled, and 26 convictions and 20 sentences were reported to date. The process between the SAPS and Justice is currently being simplified to achieve more effective results. Special commercial courts are also planned for Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. I am happy to announce that from 1 July 2001, a second specialist commercial court is to be established in Pretoria.

4.2 Dealing with organised crime - NDPP initiatives:

* Firstly, government has introduced a number of measures over the last few years aimed at updating the arsenal of weapons available to fight organised crime specifically, such as the Proceeds of Crime Act of 1996, the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act, 1996, the Extradition Act and the Prevention of Organised Crime Act of 1998, which incorporated the Proceeds of Crime Act. These laws introduced sophisticated new measures that have been used with some success internationally in the creation of money laundering and racketeering offences, and the introduction of asset forfeiture.

* The Prevention of Organised Crime Act, 1998, and the establishment of the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) were important steps towards dealing with organised crime.

* Thus far it has initiated 42 seizures and 16 forfeiture cases. It has seized assets totalling about R165 million from criminals and placed them under the control of a curator appointed by the court.

Overall, however, the AFU has been more successful than it expected - showing a success rate of 86% - 37 out of 43 cases since it started. In fact, since the law was amended in September 1999, the AFU has enjoyed an even more impressive success rate of over 92% - succeeding in 34 of its 37 applications.

4.3. Improving the quality of prosecutions through:

* General training to develop the skills of prosecutors;
* Specialised training in the sophisticated measures used internationally to deal with organised crime;
* A significant (21%) salary increase in order to make salaries more competitive and ensure that skilled prosecutors are not lost to the private sector;
* The creation of posts for specialist prosecutors;
* A re-evaluation of the salary structure of prosecutors; and
* An initiative with the bar council to utilise private advocates in prosecutions.

4.4. Improving performance and productivity:

* Chief prosecutors were appointed to ensure a proper system of management and accountability for the lower court prosecutors;
* A system was developed to collect and monitor performance indicators from all courts,
* A special action team was established to deal with the weak areas;
* Senior managers have been given clear targets; and
* A special team was established to deal speedily with disciplinary offences.
An example of the gains made possible by greater productivity is that within a year, the sitting hours of the 700 magistrates courts have increased by 15% - the equivalent of running 100 extra courts per day.

4.5 Dealing with case backlogs

The Department, in co-operation with the NPA and under the auspices of the Ministers' Cluster responsible for the Justice System, initiated Saturday courts and established additional courts as an urgent intervention to deal with the unacceptably high level of case backlogs, particularly in the regional courts. The outstanding district court roll (for the more than 700 district courts) is approximately 170 cases per court, and the total outstanding court roll for the regional court is between 46 000 and 50 000 cases.

The initiative has the co-operation of all role players.

It was decided that the focus of the Saturday courts would be on the regional courts. On average 75 courts sat countrywide on Saturdays from 17 February 2001. They have finalised as at the end of May 2001, 1435 cases. To indicate their productivity, it should be noted that over the first four Saturdays, these courts sat a total of 1 586,5 hours, with courts averaging five hours per Saturday. This represents an improvement of more than an hour per day on the national average. Only trial matters are dealt with, and postponements or bail applications are not considered.

In addition to Saturday courts, special additional courts have also been instituted since March 2001. Former magistrates and prosecutors were recruited for this purpose. Thirty-eight such courts participated during March 2001, disposing of 1671 cases over the past three months. They are finalising at least 1 case per court per day

The Saturday Courts have generally achieved outstanding success and the initiative is being continuously reviewed. I wish to express my and Government's sincere appreciation for the dedication of the court personnel, who are sacrificing their Saturdays to help deal with the backlog challenges.

4.6 Demand reduction programme - towards a National Drug Master Plan

While we have been generally successful in dealing with the problem of importation of illicit drugs and narcotics into South Africa, it is clear that more needs to be done.

The Cluster of Ministers is committed to national initiatives to reduce the demand for illegal drugs. All criminal justice agencies must contribute to providing a coherent, integrated and co-ordinated approach in our fight against drugs. The drug problem goes way beyond mere law enforcement. We require long term strategies to deal with this social pathology, which is currently ravaging our society and is a major cause of crime, poverty, family dysfunctionality and reduced productivity.

We must constantly engage in dialogue and co-operation agreements with foreign countries, which have had similar experiences, in order to strengthen our strategy and immunity.

5. LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME

Many of the newly enacted statutes emanate from investigations by the South African Law Commission, as do many of the Bills, which my Department is currently preparing for submission to Parliament. A word of appreciation is due to Madame Justice Yvonne Mokgoro, who took over as Chairperson of the Commission after Judge Mohamed's untimely death, as well as to her fellow Commissioners and the researchers at the Commission for their sterling work in the field of legislative reform.

At the beginning of 2000 the Department directed its energies largely to the preparation and promotion of the three constitutionally-mandated statutes, namely the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, all 3 being comprehensive pieces of legislation which give enormous impetus to the transformation process and the spirit of the Constitution. The first two of these Acts are already partially in operation and it is hoped that the remainder of the other provisions of these Acts and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act will be implemented during the course of 2001. Mention should also be made of the implementation of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, towards the end of 2000, which will hopefully impact positively on the lives of many of the women in the country. I would like to see the enactment of the following important statutes, among the many other 35 or so legislative priorities, which currently feature on our legislative programme and which should be promoted as soon as possible:

(i) Interception and Monitoring Bill, which is intended to strengthen the hands of law enforcement agencies in the fight against crime.

(ii) International Criminal Court Bill, which will make the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court part of our domestic law.

(iii) Child Justice Bill which is intended to establish a comprehensive new criminal system in respect of juveniles in trouble with the law.

We are also working on legislation:
(i) to facilitate sentencing bargaining;
(ii) to allow the prosecution to appeal on questions of fact relating to the merits of a case.

It is also our intention to work on legislation, which is intended to provide a comprehensive framework in respect of sentencing, in which victims of crime will be placed at the centre of the criminal justice system.

Legislation dealing with the compulsory HIV testing of accused persons in sexual offences cases is also high on our list of priorities, as is the Legal Practice Bill, which is intended to rationalise legislation dealing with the legal profession in its entirety.

Last, but not least as was pointed out earlier on, I need to say that we, as a Department, together with representatives of the judiciary are looking at the restructuring of the courts as contemplated by the Constitution, as well as at the functioning of the courts. This initiative will more than likely give rise to numerous amendments or even to the re-writing of existing and long standing Acts of Parliament, such as the Supreme Court Act, 1959, and Magistrates Courts' Act, 1944. An enormous, yet exciting, task lies ahead in terms of legislation. We look forward to your positive participation in these initiatives before and when the legislation is submitted to Parliament for debate.

6. TRANSFORMATION OF THE SHERIFFS PROFESSION

Under the chairpersonship of the Deputy Minister, a National Action Plan aimed at the transformation of the sheriff's profession into a more representative, equitable, efficient and service-oriented profession is in the process of completion. A discussion paper on the National Action Plan has already been completed and will be circulated to all relevant stakeholders for comment.

7. TRC

7.1. Reparations

The TRC has since concluded its work and our commissioners are finalising their report. In anticipation of the report, we have already placed before Cabinet recommendations regarding final reparations. Government has committed slightly over R800 million for purposes of final reparations. Cabinet is now studying a document that sets out proposals as to how to effect final reparations with the view to advising the President, who will thereafter table his proposals before a joint sitting of the House for debate by Parliament. This will be done as soon as the President has received the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

7.2. Question?

The other question that we have to grapple with as Parliament and as parties represented here, is the following: What do we do with people who applied for and did not get amnesty or people who simply did no apply at all?

Maybe honourable members will want to debate whether Adrian Hadland is right in observing that "we as a nation have to decide whether we want to spend millions, perhaps billions of rands, prosecuting those who have so far evaded justice, or whether we wish to use the resources for other, pressing things like housing and health care. The Wouter Basson trial has apparently already cost more than R4 million."

In anticipation of such a debate and on the instructions of the President I have quietly started consulting some of the retired generals who served in the South African Police and the South African Defence Force, as well as some of the leaders of the parties represented in this House. The views they are all expressing in this regard are interesting.
Closure

Madam Speaker, without going into detail of the recent judgement of the Transvaal Provincial Division in the matter of Hermanus Frederick Van Rooyen and two others versus the State and seven others and venturing into public comment on a matter which is sub judice, I need to point out that I have no intention whatsoever to interfere in judicial matters. As indicated above, I have long initiated a process to look at all impediments, which hinder the independence of the judiciary. It is my intention to promote the mainstreaming of the Lower judiciary into a single judiciary. I have noted the contents of the judgement and will await the confirmation of the judgement by the Constitutional Court before considering its practical implications.

The demands and pressures to deliver in respect of our constitutional and legislative obligations and priorities have been financially challenging for my Department. With the recent focus on consolidating our financial affairs, we are now in a position to quite clearly ascertain our budget deficit in respect of urgent needs and minimum service delivery standards. We will be approaching treasury with a view to establishing a common perspective and a way forward in this regard. Furthermore, I wish to thank the international donor community for their excellent support and co-operation to date.

In closing allow me to dip our banners in remembering the incredible legacy left us by the late Chief Justice, Ismail Mohammed. Let us also pay tribute to the following persons:
Judge D A Kotze who died on 14 September 2000;
Judge H O Van Dyk who died on 28 January 2001; and
Pieter Theron, Wynberg Regional Court magistrate, who was cowardly assassinated here in the Western Cape.

Lastly I wish to thank all members of the Justice family, ranging from members of the South African Police Service, Prosecutors, Magistrates, Judges, Interpreters, Court Orderlies, Correctional Services, and all members of our respective Departments.

I thank you

Issued by Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development

12 June 2001