Chairperson, the ACDP supports the Superior Courts Bill, which must be read together with the Constitution Seventeenth Amendment Bill that was passed earlier this week.
I must say, I was born in 1959 and what is quite significant is that we are repealing the Supreme Court Act, Act 59 of 1959 - it is quite a significant date. The Bill is also a vast improvement, which the ACDP does support. It has been in the making for some 10 years and it has been improved substantially. [Laughter.]
The significance is the fact that the proposed integration of the existing specialised courts, such as the Labour Court, the Electoral Court, the Competition Appeal Court and the Land Claims Court, into the High Court was not continued with and they are not special divisions. That we support as well.
As we know, the Bill has established the Constitutional Court as the highest court in the land and expanded its jurisdiction. The administration of the courts is placed firmly in the hands of the Chief Justice, which will, as we know, promote judicial independence. He will exercise responsibility over the establishment and monitoring of norms and standards for the exercise of judicial functions of all courts.
The portfolio committee repeated their expressed concerns about the declining court performance. Hon Minister, you are aware of that and I understand that the Chief Justice has already begun streamlining the case flow management process. We also believe that the establishment of the office of the Chief Justice as a stand-alone independent department will assist and enhance judicial independence.
As we said earlier, this process has come a long way and it is a far cry from earlier drafts which sought to cement the administration and running of the courts in the hands of the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and not the Chief Justice. This would clearly have presented a certain threat to judicial independence and was thankfully jettisoned by the Minister himself, after consultation with the judiciary and the legal fraternity. This Bill aims to rationalise, consolidate and amend the laws relating to the Constitutional Court.
The Supreme Court of Appeal, SCA, expressed its opposition to obligatory circuit courts. This was a very interesting concept - compulsion for it to sit in other areas as well - and it said that this would be unnecessary and undesirable. The rationale was access to justice, but it believed that this would cause huge logistical difficulties with severe, adverse financial implications. We as the portfolio committee were persuaded that it was not necessary to make this obligatory, but to leave it to the discretion of the President of the SCA, as is the case with the Constitutional Court. How many MPs know that the Constitutional Court can sit elsewhere as well, at the discretion of the Chief Justice?
The ACDP also welcomes the provision that requires that any draft legislation dealing with the establishment or functioning of the courts may be introduced only after consultation with the Minister of Justice.
So, we say goodbye to the Supreme Court Act, Act 59 of 1959. Viva, the Superior Courts Bill! Viva! [Applause.]