The following activities have been completed and/or are currently underway:

• The project team has been mobilised and a briefing session for all team members held.
• Communication with key stakeholders has been initiated via a presentation and a discussion paper on shared services. Stakeholders that have been met include:
• Director General: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
• The Executive Committee: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
• Regional Heads: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
• Chief Justice
• Chair of the Magistrate’s Commission
• National Director of Public Prosecution

(A meeting with the Chair of the Portfolio Committee on Justice is also planned.)

• A number of Department of Justice entities have been selected to serve as sample for the study. These entities are:
• Department of Justice and Constitutional Development Head Office Department of Justice and Constitutional Development Head Office
• Gauteng Regional Office
• Eastern Cape Regional Office
• Constitutional Court
• Witwatersrand Local Division
• Transkei Provincial Division
• Johannesburg Magistrates Court (Main and Hillbrow, Protea, Meadowlands branch courts)
• Germiston Magistrates Court
• Pretoria North Magistrates Court
• Meyerton Magistrates Court
• Tsolo Magistrates Court
• Data gathering workshops with the above entities have commenced and are scheduled to be completed by 15 February 2002.
• Current initiatives are being reviewed to determine synergies as well as areas for cooperation and integration.

The immediate next steps for the project team are to:

• Complete the data gathering and workshop process.
• Document findings in an ‘As Is’ Report.
• Using the above as input – to develop an appropriate high-level operating model for shared services in the Department of Justice.
• Continue communication with, and involvement of, key stakeholders in project activities.
• Continue liaison with existing project teams and sponsors to identify synergies and agree areas for cooperation.
• Rationalising the structure and functioning of the courts

Following legislation during 2001, leading to changes relating to the hierarchy of the courts and in particular the position of the Chief Justice, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development will continue to facilitate discussions with the relevant role players during 2002 with the aim of promoting, on an urgent basis, legislation during 2002 in order to rationalise the structure and functioning of the courts. (These discussions follow on a Colloquium convened by the Ministry during 2000 and further deliberations with Judges, Magistrates, Prosecutors, representatives of the legal fraternity and other role players, to discuss issues pertaining to the structural hierarchy of the courts.) On the re-structuring of the hierarchy of courts, the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development has appointed a team headed by the Chief Justice. The team will also investigate the possibility of a single Judiciary and impediments in the independence of the Judiciary. The first phase will focus on the Higher Courts of South Africa. The court rationalization is not only a Constitutional obligation, but will improve the functioning of the courts.

As an interim measure, the Interim Rationalisation of jurisdiction of the High Court Act, (Act No 14 of 2001) passed, provides for the interim rationalisation of the areas of jurisdiction of the High Court. In terms of this Act, the Minister is empowered, after consultation with the Judicial Service Commission, to alter area of jurisdiction of any High Court. The purpose of this Act is to promote efficiency of, and equity relating, to the administration of justice through the whole of the Republic. At the moment there are Divisions of the High Court that have jurisdiction in areas falling outside their Provincial boundaries. Divisions of the High Court which will be affected by this exercise are:

Implementation of this Act has already been discussed with the Head of Judiciary (Chief Justice) who gave a go-ahead on the procedure to be followed. Task teams consisting of a Judge President, Director of Public Prosecutions and the Regional Head of the affected area will come up with recommendations in relation to the alteration of areas of jurisdiction of certain High Courts. Recommendations will be forwarded to the National office for proper co-ordination as they will be discussed at the meeting of Heads of Courts to be held in April 2002.

• RATIONALISATION OF REGIONAL COURT DIVISIONS

It has been realised that the way in which Regional Courts Divisions are functioning at the moment is not cost-effective. A process is nearing completion to ensure that Cross-Provincial boundaries operations are stopped. The view is that each Province should have its own Regional Court Division.

• Legal Aid

The Legal Aid Board has one key objective for 2002, namely to further broaden access to justice for poor people. The means of delivering legal services to poor people is through the Legal Aid Board’s Justice Centres and Public Defenders in our courts. The demand for legal aid has more than doubled during the last few years. The LAB has established 26 Justice Centres to date and will be establishing an additional 23 Centres during 2002. One of the focal points is child maintenance that has the effect of removing entire families from the poverty trap. When women receive maintenance support the children are taken care of. During 2001 the Legal Aid Guide was finalized and submitted to the Ministry and the Portfolio Committee. Last-mentioned instance will be debating the guide during February 2002. Directives were drafted for signatures by the Ministers of Justice and Constitutional Development and Finance. Our Minister signed them but the Finance Minister has referred it for discussion to a Cabinet Committee according to HMS.

• Service delivery at courts

Improving service delivery at courts and enhancing court performance is an important goal of the Department and Government as a whole and will continue during 2002. The Department has launched various initiatives to assist magistrate’s offices to improve service delivery and work performance at the court level. In view of the poor performance of a number of sub-offices, the Department has come up with a mechanism to monitor performance of sub-offices on regular basis. A Sub-Office Performance Review Committee has been established to oversee performance and service delivery at sub-office by analysing reports and petitions in the functioning of sub-offices and to ensure that corrective measures are introduced to promote good performance and high standard of service delivery. Out of 177 offices visited by Departmental Inspectors, 52 offices are performing unsatisfactorily various short-comings have been identified ranging from lack of discipline, irregularities, fraud and other financial management weaknesses. Emergency teams are visiting these offices with emphasis on functional, practical and task-orientated training as well as assistance in rectifying problems identified. In a number of offices this intervention has proved to be a success. Through the Sub-Office Performance Review Committee (and the Operational Room) a number of courts throughout the country were prioritised to receive immediate assistance in addressing some of the problem areas that were identified, in consultation and collaboration with all role-players, such as the Department’s Regional Offices, the Lower Courts Judicial Utilization Committee of the Magistrates Commission, the National Prosecuting Authority, and the head of the court concerned. Monitoring takes place on a weekly basis to examine the problems that have been identified and to devise solutions and provide assistance at the court level. For example, a team comprising officials from Justice College, Court Management, the National Inspectorate, and experienced administrative staff from courts that are functioning well, visited offices such as Umtata, Randburg, Phuthaditjaba, Emlazi and Odi, to provide "hands on" training and assistance in line with the problems being experienced. The initiatives also include examining the accommodation and equipment needs of the court and, where possible, fast-tracking the provision of the equipment needed.

Despite staff shortages to undertake court inspections, over 40 offices were inspected and follow-ups are being made to ensure prescripts and work procedures are adhered to. Due to lack of staff resources, a decision was taken to centralise inspection services at national level.

Specialised Commercial Courts (2) were established with the assistance of BAC in rimes Unit (NPA) in Pretoria and extension to Johannesburg is being promoted currently. These courts continue to make major contributions in the fight against serious financial crimes. By the end of October last year the Unit dealing with such cases had enrolled 212 cases. Of the 171 cases brought to court, 153 resulted in convictions and only 18 acquitals.

Community Outreach Programmes

The regions and courts initiated activities in the year under review in collaboration with other stakeholders in the provinces regarding:

• Violence against women /Domestic violence
• World Aids day
• 16 Days of No Violence Against Women
• Children’s Festival
• Batho Pele Roadshow
• Community Safety Workshops
• Heritage Day Celebration
• Victim Empowerment Initiatives

1. The regions continue to experience staff losses due to uncertainty created by the restructuring process, the future of the regions and ever increasing responsibilities in the courts due to new legislation being implemented.
2. Due to extreme shortage of staff, the regions could not execute their mandate to the extent required as those down-sized regions, (Northern Cape, Gauteng, Western Cape) did not receive extra personnel as promised when they were set up.
3. Separation of powers at courts is difficult in most offices because most control officers are not skilled managers and are therefore not ready to take over that responsibility yet.
4. General loss of skilled workforce at the courts because persons are being attracted by better opportunities outside.
5. Lack of funds to fill existing posts and create those already recommended through workstudy investigations. In this case, temporary and volunteers were relied on and their retention cannot be sustained. So there is continuous training without sustaining and retaining the skills we are developing.

• Finances at the courts

With the CFO office established in the current year, the financial administration of the courts currently resorts under the CFO. Dealing with the finances at the various justice offices are improving.

The budgets of the Magistrates Offices and the Regional Court Presidents were processed for separation so that each manager can take over the management of his/her respective resources.

The Directorate, Regional Co-ordination was entrusted to take over the responsibility to implement the Equality Act, (Promotion of Equality and Prevention of unfair Discrimination Act, 2000) in February 2001. The following achievements of the programme are submitted:

1. An inclusive stakeholders forum, ELIT (Equality Legislation Implementation Team) was established to co-ordinated activities relevant to the implementation of the Act. It included internal and external role-players.
2. Only certain sections of the Act were put into operation in September 2000 including the establishment of the Equality Review Committee.
3. Training of presiding officers and clerks of equality courts have progressed well, funded by the Australian Government. (AUSAID). More than 50 officials, magistrates, judges and clerks, were trained. Decentralised training is underway at this stage.
4. Tertiary institutions & the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Wits) were contracted to develop training manuals and tools, eg Policy Directives, Bench book & Procedure Manual for Equality Clerks.
5. The South African Human Rights Commission was commissioned by the Department & the Equality Review Committee to conduct research on section 34 of the Act. The work is to be completed by February 2002 when a report will be submitted to the Minister. Further research on criminalization of some aspects of discrimination, eg hate speech, as provided in the international instruments to which the RSA is signatory, drafting of the promotional regulations of the Act, and lastly on aspects objected to by the insurance industry in the Act. Reports on these are due by the end of this year.
6. The process to have the Act amended to provide for the incremental establishment of equality courts, to give power to the heads of courts to designate presiding officers and to address training concerns, is in the draft stage and being processed. It is envisaged that the amendment will be introduced in parliament by the end of the current year.

In order to strengthen the independence of the judiciary and improve court efficiency, the Department has embarked on a process to separate the administrative and judicial functions at court office level and to also appoint office managers on that level. This will continue during 2002. The significance of this exercise lies in the fact that as a result proper attention can be provided to administrative justice functions leading to better service delivery. It is also enhancing efficiency in courts because magistrates who were appointed as office heads can now spend more time on judicial functions. In addition to placing the administrative functions under the control of administration officials at all court offices, several senior appointments of office managers have been made. Offices where such senior appointments have been made or are in the process of being made include the Johannesburg Magistrates Office, Cape Town High Court, Randburg Magistrates Office, Pretoria Magistrates Office, Durban and Pietermaritzburg Magistrates Offices, East London Magistrates Office, Port Elizabeth Magistrates Office and the Umtata Magistrates Office. More senior appointments will be made during the year.

With regard to the above office manager programme, it should be noted that the Business Unit was successful in entering in a partnership with Business Against Crime to sponsor the pilot project to effect separation of powers at court level based on scientific processes. A court manager was appointed in Johannesburg and Durban to pilot this and has completed the work and the results are: A Court Services Manager has been appointed in Johannesburg Magistrate Court with effect from 01 February 2002. The competencies developed from Johannesburg exercise are now being used nationally to recruitment to recruit court /office managers in the courts.

The Department together with the skills development programme (POSLEC SETA) is in the process of developing a learnership programme for court managers which should be finalized towards the end of March 2002.

Training of control officers to take over as office managers in line with separation of powers between the judiciary and administration at court level, were also instituted. E.g to expose them to move advanced environments and give them the opportunity to get hands on training in the best performing offices, heads of Admin from a large number of Magistrates Offices were sent to Durban, Pietersburg, Pretoria and Vereeniging to be trained on court management.

A substantial amount of money has been earmarked for office managers for the new financial year – R5m, whilst R20m has been earmarked for the dire need for establishment extension on court level (clerks, regional court magistrates, family advocate officials, family court centres’ officials and interpreters in particular).

• Re-demarcation of magisterial boundaries

In order to effect equitable and efficient distribution of courts, and utilisation of resources, the Department is busy finalizing the re-demarcation of magisterial boundaries. In many instances the geographical or physical location of courts does not provide an adequate level of service delivery to the majority of the population. This is due to the fact that prior to 1994, the former apartheid-based geographical areas formed the basis of the positioning of courts. As part of the transformation process, the Department began examining its functional or service delivery boundaries. This process was placed on hold while the Municipal Demarcation Board completed its task of re-drawing municipal boundaries. With the gazetting of the new municipal areas, the Department was able to continue the process of the re-demarcation of magisterial district boundaries. To date, seven reports from Regional Steering Committees have been received by national office of the Department namely, North West, Gauteng, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. These seven reports have been discussed at various meetings of the National Steering Committee. Agreement has been reached on the majority of the proposed new magisterial districts. However, in instances where no agreement could be reached on some of the proposed districts that cross provincial boundaries, Regional Steering Committees were requested to consult with each other to find appropriate solutions, and to report back to the National Steering Committee. Reports in respect of the Northern Cape and the Free State are still outstanding. Once a report has been accepted by the National Steering Committee, it will be submitted to the Municipal Demarcation Board for their consideration and comment, and then to the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development for his approval of the proposed new magisterial districts. Following approval by the Minister, the necessary legal work required to have the new magisterial district boundaries published in the government gazette will be undertaken. Three provinces’ reports and maps are to be submitted soon, namely Mpumalanga, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. It is envisaged that the full process will be completed within 2002.

Improving case management and optimising the efficient use of court resources remain major objectives for the Department and Government. In this regard, a number of blockages are experienced at court level that hampers the speedy finalisation of trials. Prisoners arriving at court late and dockets missing or not court ready, are just a few examples of such blockages. In order to improve the co-ordination and integration of activities at courts, the IJS Court Centre Project is presently being implemented at courts throughout the country, particularly where case backlogs are unacceptably high.

Whereas the flagship court management project of the Integrated Justice System (IJS) is the Court Process Project, this project has a medium to long-term implementation time frame. The IJS Court Centre Project, on the other hand, is an interim solution to court and case management. This project aims to provide a single nodal point within the court from where the entire court process is managed. The overall objective is to reduce the average case cycle time.

The methodology followed involves the identification of experienced public prosecutor who, together with a SAPS official, receives all dockets two days prior to the date of the hearing, and ensures that dockets are ready for trial. A simple, computer-based data capturing and data management programme is used to store and manage the case information contained in each docket and in the charge sheet. The system also manages the court rolls, and tracks and controls the awaiting trial period of each detained accused. The project includes the establishment of Reception Courts, where all first appearances, remands, bail applications and guilty pleas are heard. This ensures that only trial-ready cases are dealt with in other courts.

The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development officially opened the IJS Court Centre at the New Law Courts on 17 August 2001. The IJS Court Centre Project has since been rolled out to 16 other sites (Ermelo, Witbank, Bellville, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Empangeni, New Brighton, Germiston, Kimberley, Klerksdorp, Queenstown, Benoni, Welkom, Nelspruit, Kabokweni and Pinetown. The system will be implemented at a further 15 magistrates offices throughout the country by the end of August 2002. The focus will be on those courts that are experiencing greater than average case backlogs, and the National Prosecuting Service was involved in the identification of the rollout sites.

One of the benefits of the initiative is the collection of monthly court management information from the sites where the project has been implemented. Although the information only relates to those courts where the project has been implemented, the pool of information is continuously expanding, as the project is rolled out. This will provide a valuable alternative to, and verification of, the statistics collected by the National Prosecuting Service. It provides information on a monthly basis on aspects such as the number of outstanding cases, the profile of the accused (in custody, on bail etc.), the number of juvenile accused, the reasons for postponements, and the number of prisoners awaiting trial for specific periods.

• Saturday and Additional courts

The initiatives to improve court productivity and deal with the significant backlog of cases (and therefore also the large number of awaiting trial prisoners in the already overfull prisons) were boosted during 2001 with the establishment of Saturday and Additional Courts. At the end of the year we finalized 14 441 cases through this initiative (5 993 through Saturday courts and 8 448 through additional courts). The efforts in this regard will continue during 2002. The Saturday Courts have maintained an average of 5 court hours since February last year. By November 2001, there were 65 additional courts countrywide and, on average, 90 Saturday Courts held sessions weekly. These courts are set to achieve a target of 15 000 cases by March 2002.

In support of the national focus on poverty alleviation the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development will implement during 2002 widespread improvements to the maintenance system with specific focus on access to services. This includes the appointment of maintenance officers at various centres country-wide. In delivering a far higher nett child support payout, a more efficient maintenance system will significantly improve the quality of life of South Africa’s children. The Justice Footprint Project has as part and parcel of its objectives assistance with re-engineering maintenance in the country. A meeting was held in this regard with all relevant role-players and recommendations will be made (this month still) to the Ministry.

The current escalation in child rape and continuation of unacceptably high levels of adult rape and sexual offences demand that government reconsiders it’s programmes to address crime and violence against women and children to make optimal use of resources in this essential priority focus. This will receive priority attention during 2002. A Cabinet memorandum is currently being drafted following an interdepartmental task team’s report to the JCPS cluster in this regard. (This will include a draft action plan for the reduction of rape and the improvement of criminal justice processes with regard to sexual offences.)

The restorative justice principles utilized by the Department of Correctional Services and in the new approach to Child Justice reflected in the Child Justice Bill which will be introduced in Parliament this year seeks to reduce repeat offending and ensure that offenders can safely ad productively return to their communities. This Bill is intended to introduce a comprehensive new and separate criminal justice system for juveniles who come into conflict with the law. The Bill will facilitate the implementation by South Africa of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. It will also facilitate the promotion of children's rights as contemplated in section 28 of the Constitution. Given the prevalence of repeat offending these programmes are essential both in response to committed crimes, and in prevention of future crimes and apply to all the priority crime areas.

The importance of the domestic violence programme in intervening early in the cycle of violence that can repeat itself for generations cannot be underestimated. Both as a response to existing high levels of domestic violence and as a mechanism to reduce future violent crime, initiatives to reduce and react to domestic violence must be prioritised. In this regard an effective response to domestic violence can be considered as one of the interventions to address the culture of violence that contributes to rape and sexual offences. This will continue to be prioritised during 2002. In order to ensure that indeed we protect and promote the rights of our women and children we need to ensure that we improve our systems and procedures that are aimed at protecting them.

More than 2 000 officials (665 magistrates, 199 prosecutors, 357 clerks, 45 attorneys, South African police officials, Non-Government Organisations, etc.) have been trained on the new Domestic Violence Act. A comprehensive manual on domestic violence for the training of all key service providers has been developed.

Six additional sexual offences courts are being planned for 2002 in some of the hotspot areas. This is aimed at providing dedicated and specialist services to communities that have a high rate of these horrendous crimes. Statistics show that 40% of the rapes against children were committed by other children below the age of 18 years. Because the criminal justice system was not designed for children, these young offenders unfortunately find themselves trapped in the system for a very long time. The importance of the Child Justice Bill and diversion can therefore not be over-emphasized.

The South African Police Service have indicated that over a 6-month period: -
* 1 021 cases dealing with sexual offences against children were finalised in court. Perpetrators were sentenced to a total of 7 285 years, including 53 life sentences. Fines to a value of R234 120-00 were imposed.
* 179 cases, involving adults, were finalised leading to 1 328 years of imprisonment - including 4 life sentences. Fines to a value of R62 240-00 were imposed.

• The Victim Empowerment Programme

The Victim Empowerment Programme aims to improve services to all victims of crime and makes provision for victims with specific needs, like women and children.

A draft South African Victims' Charter was developed in 2001 in conjunction with Court Services which: -
* Outlines the rights and standard of services to which a victim is entitled.
* Explains the processes in the criminal justice system;
* Outlines the treatment a victim can expect from the various role players in the system;
* Outlines the complaints procedure and includes an address list of the relevant service providers.

• HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Region had inherited sub-offices (Magistrates Offices) with unrepresentative staff components from the previous dispensation. This has been changed dramatically e.g the Eastern Cape representivity figure was moved from 58% to 72% with the following racial composition level:

• African 74%
• White 19.6%
• Coloured 5.4%
• Asian 0.7%

and the gender composition level:

• Male 44%
• Female 56%

Generally, the following training initiatives were undertaken:

• Maintenance clerks workshops
• Switchboard operators training to address lack of courtesy/rudeness
• Service excellence workshops (communication, customer management, time management, stress management, etc)

Due to the challenge of shortage of staff and funds to appoint staff, most courts relied on temporary units and volunteers. A considerable number of volunteers and temporary units were engaged in the courts in the current financial year.

• Infrastructure

R30 million was provided and divided amongst all regions for infrastructure development and over 58% of the allocation is already committed to procure court recording machines, furniture, computers, etc. Over 20 new motor vehicles were purchased and distributed to the courts and the regional offices as old ones were no longer user-friendly.

• Accommodation

Please see the annexure hereunder.

In brief the following programmes will add value during 2002:

The National Community Safety Centre Programme involves the four core departments within the criminal justice system, namely the South African Police Service, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Department of Correctional Services and the Department of Welfare, as well as the Department of Health. It aims to bring services rendered by these departments to communities where these services either do not exist or are not easily accessible, especially in rural and previously disadvantaged areas, in an integrated way. The following centres are to benefit during 2002:

1. Leboeng (Praktiseer, Northern Province).

2. Tshidilamolomo (Molopo, North West).

4. Thembalethu (George, Western Cape).

5. Centane (Eastern Cape).

6. Nsimbini (Umbumbulu, KwaZulu / Natal).

7. Thabong (Welkom, Free State).

8. Khutsong (Oberholzer / Carletonville, Gauteng).

9. Augrabies (Kakamas, Northern Cape).

A Repair and Maintenance Programme (RAMP) is to be embarked upon in February 2002. Due to the unavailability of sufficient funds and neglect over many years, the buildings in which the Department's offices are accommodated, especially the magistrate's offices, have not been maintained properly, with the result that the majority of them have degraded to conditions of disrepair and even dilapidation. The purpose of this programme is to systematically attend to identified buildings, effecting all repairs which would once again bring such a building to the point of full functionality, and thereafter to properly maintain it.

In addition to the abovementioned programmes, the following top priority new capital works services have been put into planning:

1. Johannesburg Constitutional Court New building.

2. Tembisa Magistrate's Office New building.

3. Bothithong Periodical Court New building.

(Magistrate, Kudumane)

5. Atamelang Magistrate's Office

6. Middeldrift Magistrate's Office New building

7. Benoni Magistrate's Office New building.

8. Randburg Magistrate's Office New building.

9. Pretoria North Magistrate's Office

10. Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Office New building.

11. Scottburgh Magistrate's Office

12. Sebokeng Magistrate's Office

13. Nelspruit Magistrate's Office

Security was installed and upgraded in more than 50 offices, such as Odi, Moretele, Nzikazi, Taung, Johannesburg and Matatiele. The following security measures have been provided in most courts:

• 24 hours guarding services
• metal detectors
• x-ray machines
• burglar bars
• armed response
• security lights ,vehicle gates and locks
• fencing
• search rooms
• cash in transist services by private firms in over 20 courts.

In over 40 offices, guarding services were outsourced to private firms.

The Department experienced various security problems such as burglary, arson, bomb threats, armed robberies, deaths threats, murder and escapes from holding cells. To alleviate some of the high risk areas mentioned, additional funding (R2,5m) has been set aside to install security measures like burglary proofing, bullet proof windows, lighting, (eg. security lights which linked with gate to switch on when opened) electric front doors, trellis-doors, remote controlled gates and alarm systems. This programme will in particular safeguard 39 judicial personnel in the Western Cape and will be completed by the end of 2002.

To assist in alleviating escapes of prisoners, thefts and protection of personnel in the Department, an additional amount of R8.7m has been set aside to purchase a total of X-Ray machines. The tender closes in February 2002 and the project should be finalised within four (4) months.