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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO.: 371
DATE OF QUESTION: 15 OCTOBER 2010
371.   Mr O de Beer (COPE-WC) to ask the Minister of Justice and
Constitutional Development:
(1)Â Â Â Â Â Â Whether any mechanisms will be put in place to deal with the
current backlog in court cases as a result of the recent Public
Service strike; if not, why not; if so, what mechanisms;
(2)Â Â Â Â Â Â whether he is considering to follow the approach that was used
during the 2010 Fifa World Cup Soccer tournament to deal with the
backlog; if not, why not; if so, how much is this going to cost the
taxpayer?     Â
CW468E
REPLY:-
(1)Â Â Â Â Â Â I would like to inform the Honourable Member that the Department
of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&CD) has, in conjunction
with the other Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster
role players, such as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA),
assessed the overall impact of the recent public service industrial
action upon the country-wide court rolls. During the industrial
action, approximately 193 DOJ&CD courts were totally closed on some
days as a result of intimidation and threats. This gives an average
of 13.28% of DoJ&CD offices which were totally closed during the
industrial action per day. The public service industrial action led
to a slight decrease in the number of cases finalised. Â In this
regard, if we compare the statistics of the number of cases finalised,
including diversions in all courts for 2009/10 (for the six month
period, April to September, namely 234 770 cases) with that of the
same period for 2010/11 (April to September) (233Â 659 cases) there is
only a -0,5% change. If we only look at cases finalised without
diversions, the impact is -3% (namely from 175 455 to 170 477). If
the statistics for the two financial years 2009/10 and 2010/11 (for
the periods April â September of each financial year) are compared, we
see that there were 37 459 backlog cases (18%) on the outstanding
court roll of 211 262 at the end of September 2009, and 37Â 967 (19%)
backlog cases on the outstanding roll of 204 454 at the end of
September 2010. There were thus 3% less outstanding cases and a very
slight increase in backlog cases, namely 1%.
           At the same time it should be noted that, notwithstanding the 2-
week public service industrial action, a positive clearance ratio of
1.2% was still managed by all courts during Quarter 2 of 2010/11. Â In
this regard, a total of 78 812 new cases were enrolled and 79 757
cases were disposed of. A very small number of only 33 strike related
matters were enrolled (with 247 accused).
           The DOJ&CD has already been in contact with the NPA to assist
with actions aimed at dealing with the increased case backlogs. In
the main, we will be dealing with the backlogs through the JCPS
integrated Case Backlog Reduction Project which assists Regional and
District Court Centres in dealing with case backlogs by adding
additional capacity through additional courts and staff to deal with
all backlog cases. There are currently 16 District Backlog Courts and
51 Regional Backlog Courts in operation. The existing Backlog Courts
will be used to assist in absorbing the impact of the additional cases
and long-outstanding cases will be prioritised. Â In addition, the
increased use of alternative dispute resolution methods will be
promoted and this will help in reducing the trial cases. The
promotion of improved scheduling of court cases will hopefully also
lead to the improved use of court hours.
           At the end of September 2010, a total of 28 182 backlog cases
had been removed from the court rolls since November 2006 through the
backlog reduction initiative. For the current financial year, from
April to September 2010, 4 151 cases were removed from the Regional
Court rolls and 4 083 cases from the District Court rolls. (During the
2009/2010 financial year, 6 830 cases were removed in the Regional
Courts.)
2) With regard to the re-institutionalisation of the special 2010 FIFA
World Cup Courts, the Honourable Member should note that my Department
is currently considering the roll-out of best practices arising from
the functioning of these courts. It should, however, be noted that
dealing with backlog cases is different to dealing with the cases these
special courts dealt with during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. These
special courts were created in certain centres only and dealt with
relatively minor cases. Due to the nature of these cases, little
investigation was required and cases could be dealt with speedily.Â
Backlog cases (especially in Regional Courts) relate to more complex
matters which require proper attention and extensive investigation.Â
These special courts were also run at a considerable cost, with
additional staff appointed and entailed sessions running after hours,
for which the various role players had to be remunerated.Â