Thank you very much Hon House Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Ministers, esteem members of the Judiciary, Hon members, distinguished guests, the African National Congress, ANC, supports the Budget Vote 22 of the Office Of the Chief Justice, OCJ. The freedom we enjoy today was achieved through struggle, determination and great sacrifice. Through working together, we will be able to strengthen democracy, continue the drive towards access to justice and a transformed justice system. We are proud to be representing the organisation that gave the world Nelson Mandela, who stood for the ideal of a non-sexist and non- racist society. In his inaugural address as the first President of a democratic South Africa, President Mandela said "Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all". This is what drives the work of the OCJ to ensure that there is justice for all. Justice for all is intricately linked
to our courts. Our courts have to be independent, they must respected by the people and be the ultimate guardians of the Rule of Law.
As the ANC, we remain committed to maintain and ensure the independence of the judiciary and to protect the courts to enable it to adjudicate cases without fear or favour. To further affirm the independence of the judiciary, the ANC led government introduced the 17th Constitutional Amendment Bill and the Superior Courts Bill in the National Assembly. Both these pieces of legislation were enacted with effect from August 2013. These two Acts have fundamentally changed the landscape of our judicial system and our court system.
The transformed judiciary has been one of the success stories of our constitutional dispensation. However, let me raise some issues for possible improvement: Firstly, regarding the tools of trade: as we heard earlier, some judicial offices are experiencing difficulties in accessing tools of trade, especially library material.
The transfer of functions from the justice department to the OCJ will allow the judiciary to access these materials for it has not been finalised. Members will recall that the transfer of administrative functions and identified staff attached to the
Superior Courts from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to the OCJ commenced on 1 October 2014, while the OCJ received its own Budget Vote from 1 April 2015 as pronounced earlier. We welcome the Minister's pronouncement in his input earlier, that this will be finalised soon.
Secondly, A matter which is of vital importance is the implementation of the judicial norms and standards and how this has an effect on flow management, judicial officer caseloads and the availability of up to date statistics on judgements reserved for longer than 3 months across all courts .The norms and standards that are directed by the Chief Justice in February 2014, provide time lines for the finalisation of cases and we are confident that the judicial officers will strive to finalise cases within the given time period an d do so as expeditiously as possible.
The coordination committees also known as efficiency enhancement committees established by the Chief Justice, to facilitate improved case flow management in all courts including the lower courts are now in place and operational, and we therefore welcome the initiatives by the Chief Justice, in addressing court blockages.
We are also pleased that the OCJ plans to further improve the quality of its performance information by implementing an automated system to monitor court performance, which, in addition to the electronic filing system for superior courts, is expected to simplify the monitoring and evaluation of norms and standards.
Chairperson, if we are to gage properly how well the courts are working, we will need clarity how best to access court performance information. Whilst it is understood that court performance entails the involvement of a number of role players, we are aware that the solution lies partly in the finalisation of the long overdue court administration model. We are looking forward to the process that will be followed to reach consensus on a court administration model, a process we are sure will be suitable to our constitutional dispensation.
Lastly, the passing of progressive pieces of legislation is a key function of this 6th Parliament. We are therefore excited about the Minister's announcement and plans to present a draft Land Court Bill which would strengthen adjudication of land restitution, expropriation of land and ultimately land distribution and that will ensure that Judges are appointed permanently to such a court and its proper capacitation. Hon members later this week we will be
celebrating Mandela Day. Madiba taught us to never rest on our laurels. In his book, Long Walk to Freedom, he says, "After climbing a great hill, one only ?nds that there are many more hills to climb" Much has been achieved in the area of providing justice and justice services to our people, but we cannot rest for there is still so much more that needs to be done. Thank you.