Dear Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services,

I am currently a final year LLB student at Wits and thoroughly enjoyed having access to virtual Constitutional Court hearings since 2020. Unfortunately, as Covid-19 has become less of a threat and things go back to "normal", so too has the ConCourt.

As a result, we have lost access to any of the ConCourt hearings, unless one of the media houses decides to broadcast it, or one physically attends. For example, today's (23 August 2022) hearing on whether SARS can divulge the tax information of citizens to the media was heard and there was no broadcast of the case.

Could the committee please look into a workable way with the OCJ and perhaps the SABC on how ConCourt hearings can continue to be broadcast in some way. I am aware that for the court's record there is an audio recording used for transcription, if all else fails, could this be made available to the public?

Any solution that is not the complete blackout we have right now, will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
David Canham