It is really unfortunate that we have had these examples in our country and particularly after we have become a democracy. Obviously, it is very difficult to find out, when you are appointing someone, whether they're a crook or not. That is what we are seeing now - this one has turned out to receive stolen property. A while ago we removed one who murdered someone. Then there were the guys who had sex on the backseat of a car with a young girl. I mean these people that have been appointed, it is very difficult to find out what their morals are, what their ethical values are. Having said that, although it is difficult, our system, at the moment, doesn't work as effectively as it should be to weed out the bad eggs.
There are flaws in our system and one of the things that we want to do, once we have dealt with the transformation at a High Court level - the Bills that were here that we've slowed down on doing the policy - we need to then, as government and all of us, even the opposition parties, look at how we want to change the magistrates' courts and how we want them to function, since 95% of our court cases go through them. They are absolutely vital. Part of that will be that we have to relook at the appointment mechanism.
The appointment mechanism, and I want to choose my words carefully, has the potential to let people through the system that should not necessarily go through. Therefore, I am going to say why it is like that. Many magistrates who are appointed for the first time are sifted by what is called provincial committees. They are not dealt with at the Magistrates Commission itself.
The Magistrates Commission has created, and your Chief Whip will know this very well, provincial committees. Then, members of the commission, one of them serves in each of those provincial ones, but the vast majority of people in those committees are not from the commission.
They are magistrates and officials and so on that have a self-interest and a particular interest, in how people are and who is going to be appointed. Secondly, I do not think that the different committees, although they are now working on changing that, have the same criteria for the magistrates they are actually recommending for appointment. Thirdly, I do not think that the mechanism is very good in actually sifting people. For example, a magistrate was appointed the other day that had actually been suspended and kicked out of the NPA. He gets appointed as a magistrate and no one picks it up in the process.
There is clearly a lack of capacity, when these committees at the provincial level - I mean the commissioners themselves and the people who are there - don't have capacity of researchers to say, "Take this person's curriculum vitae and go and check what they have done in the past".
There are problems with the way the system that we took over functions because we are still using the same one that was created before we came into government. That system has got the potential to create big problems. Members that are part of that will know what difficulties they have.
Remember, this commission also only sits maybe once in three months. Then they just try and look at certain things like how you appoint people into higher positions. They don't look at the people that enter the system. That is done by these different committees that all use their own appointment criteria.
In the process, unfortunately, we've seen that we have appointed people that should never have got close to the bench; I mean, people that are murdering each other, taking stolen goods, having sex with young girls on the backseats of cars, and so on.
Clearly those things are not good for our democracy. It is not good for our judiciary and I know that the judiciary itself and the magistracy are very worried about this. Hopefully, as part of all these transformation processes, we will have to change the appointment mechanism. The magistracy quite severely makes it much more foolproof and creates some checks and balances in the system which doesn't let these friends of Baba Mzizi slip through like they are slipping through at the moment. [Laughter.]
Measures adopted by SA National Defence Force to avoid accidents like the one at Lohatla, and assistance to families affected thereby
149. Mr N J Mack (ANC) asked the Minister of Defence:
(1) What measures have been put in place to avoid accidents similar to the one that took place at Lohatla during the training session by the SA National Defence Force;
(2) whether there will be any assistance to the families of the members involved in the accident; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? CO2953E