Chair, may I start by saying although Deputy Minister George hasn't said anything to me yet, I can agree with my colleagues that it would be a good idea if he was arrested and put in prison! [Laughter.]
Secondly, may I thank the hon Kgoshi Mokoena for the question. The answer to this is quite easy: Clearly, we do not want and we do not have to have two different commissions. In time we will have to create one commission to deal with the appointments of judges and magistrates, but of course we must remember that the fact that there are two commissions is a quirk of history. These institutions were created in a different time and space within the democratisation of our country.
The Magistrates' Commission, you will recall, was created by the apartheid government in 1993, just before the new government. They saw the writing on the wall and just before the new government came into place they quickly got rid of magistrates as public servants and put them under the auspices of the Magistrates Commission.
The principle of that is correct, but the manner in which they did it was wrong. It was rushed and it took the magistrates out of a legal framework in which they fitted and put them in a vacuum.
A lot of problems we're experiencing today with the magistracy in terms of discipline and rules and regulations which aren't applicable - because those that did apply were pulled out of there and new ones weren't put in place - are because of this.
Furthermore, the Judicial Service Commission was created in a completely different time in history. It was created when we had started our negotiations. We wanted a new mechanism to appoint judges so that the old mechanism under apartheid, whereby judges were appointed by the executive, would be changed, and we created the Judicial Service Commission to do that.
The other thing which we must also remember is that a lot of other functions that government used to perform in terms of the magistracy have now been made a function of the Magistrates' Commission, for example, transfers and a whole lot of issues around their salaries and so on. So, these two institutions were created for different reasons at different times.
However, as you know, the policy of the government is to create a single judiciary that must as far as possible treat all judicial officers the same. So this issue that we inherited from the people who colonised us and created a different judiciary and magistracy must be done away with together with all the artificial barriers that were created along with it.
So, in due time the policy is to create one institution; but as I've said, because they were created at different times and with different effects and so on, it's not going to be that easy.
In this policy document we're looking at the moment in the department to deal with all policy issues surrounding the judiciary, this is one of the matters that will be dealt with. So in time there will definitely be one commission but it will take a bit of time for us to get there.
Steps to address complaints about poor service rendered by Legal Aid Board 140. Mr S Shiceka (ANC) asked the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development:
(1) Whether her department is addressing the complaints raised by people, including awaiting-trial prisoners, about the poor service rendered by the Legal Aid Board; if not, why not; if so, what action has been taken in this regard;
(2) whether she will make a statement on the matter? CO1790E