Hon House Chairperson, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, hon Ronald Lamola; Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Development, hon John Jeffery, Deputy Minister responsible for Correctional Services; InkosiPhathekile Holomisa, Aa! Diliz'Intaba, Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, members of the judiciary present; hon members, Secretary General of the Office of the Chief Justice; members of the legal fraternity; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen; good afternoon, the Office of the Chief Justice presented its Annual Performance Plan and its Budget for 2019 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, to the committee on 5 July 2019.
The committee raised a number of concerns that the Office of the Chief Justice could not respond to, as it would not be appropriate for officials to speak on behalf of the judiciary on matters that fall within the judicial competence.
Although the Office of the Chief Justice is likely to provide the Chief Justice and the heads of courts with a report of the meeting, the committee would like to engage with the judiciary on issues of mutual interest regarding the functioning of the justice system.
In the absence of a formal mechanism to guide interactions between Parliament and the judiciary, the committee agreed to ask the Speaker to arrange a meeting with the Chief Justice and the heads of courts.
The committee is aware that the judicial governance and court administration model has been in the pipeline for some time. The committee requested that all stakeholders work together to finalise the model so that we can move forward.
In the absence of the court administration and judicial governance model, the judiciary has decided to account directly to the nation.
The SA Judiciary's Annual Report 2017-18 contains valuable insight about developments within the judiciary and some statistics relating to the Superior Courts.
The judiciary also posts information about reserved judgements on its website. The Judiciary's Annual Report 2017-18 does provide some statistics relating to case finalisation in the Superior Courts, but the committee notes that there is a gap in the case of the magistrate's courts.
For some years now, with the exception of statistics relating to the number of backlog cases and conviction rates, there has been little information available about court performance in the Magistrate's Courts. These courts are serviced by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and they hear the majority of cases.
The committee welcomes the Minister's announcement that legislation will be introduced soon to allow for the permanent appointment of judges of the Land Claims Court. Until now, this court has been served by acting judges.
We support a single judiciary as envisaged by section 166 of the Constitution. The committee understands that a Lower Courts Bill is at a very advanced stage. There have been reports that judicial officers are experiencing difficulties in accessing tools of trade, especially law reports and other library materials.
As our society becomes increasingly litigious, the workload of our courts has grown. Increasingly, IT modernisation and digitisation are seen to provide a way to assist our courts to keep on top of demand.
We note the rollout of the ICT Master Systems Plan. These promises to improve efficiencies in the court administrative processes, specifically the e-filing project will be rolled out in the Superior Courts in the medium term.
The committee would like to learn more about the scope and progress of the project and will engage with the Office of the Chief Justice on this.
There are worrying reports about lack of security at our courts. The committee asks that the Office of the Chief Justice provide it with a full report on this regard.
The committee, having considered the Budget Vote 22 of the Of?ce of the Chief Justice and Judicial Administration, support it and recommends that it be approved. I thank you. [Applause.]