Thank you for inviting us to meet members of this committee and also to share our vision for the department.

I understand that the Portfolio Committee has a good working relationship with both the Department and the Ministry for Justice and Constitutional Development. I hope this spirit of cooperation will continue to prevail as we jointly continue to seek better ways to ensure that our service delivery makes a real impact on the lives of our people, especially those that were historically denied access to justice. I can safely say that the Department will continue to render any

assistance, as far as possible, to the committee. We will continue to help with the legislation drafting process and willingly subjecting ourselves to scrutiny by this committee.

The Department has, in the first decade of democracy, taken important and far reaching strides in an attempt to ensure improved access to justice for all the people of this country. This was achieved through policy guidelines and the promulgation of enabling legislation. The justice system has come a long way from the days when the tentacles of an unjust and repressive system were so

firmly rooted in our justice system that its institutions were unashamedly manipulated to implement and uphold Apartheid policies. Over the last ten years my predecessors with the able support of senior officials in the Department have worked tirelessly to methodically unseat the thread of injustice that was so deeply embedded in the justice system. I therefore want to thank my predecessors, the late Comrade Dullah Omar and Dr Penuell Maduna for their resolve and unwavering commitment to the cause of justice and constitutionalism.

Today, the Republic of South Africa is one sovereign democratic state founded on the values of human dignity, equality, non-racialism, non-sexism, the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law, universal suffrage and a multi- party system of democratic government to ensure accountability, transparency and responsiveness. All of this has been realized by putting in place some of the most empowering and far reaching pieces of legislation meant to give teeth to

some of the Constitution's key provisions.

KEY CHALLENGES

Despite the major strides made in the first decade of democracy, the Department

still faces major challenges, such as:

• Reducing case backlogs

• Extending access to justice to the poorest and most remote areas

• Re-engineering the maintenance system and the effective implementation of the Domestic Violence Act

• Increasing capacity among Justice personnel in order to effect service delivery excellence, in line with the principles of Batho Pele (People First)

To effectively address these challenges we will need to work closely with key stakeholders, such as chapter 9 institutions and other agencies such as the National Prosecuting Authority, the Legal Aid Board and the South African Law Reform Commission. To do this, we will need to work hard at improving the relationship and communication between the Department and these institutions.

As you are aware, over the years, the Department has experienced difficulties in the management of its finances. I am pleased to report that there is a marked improvement. We promise that it will get better.

DISPENSATION OF JUSTICE

Key to the Government's Programme of Action, as outlined in the State-of-the -Nation address, is a duty to improve the safety and security of all our citizens and communities. This duty is rooted in the provision of improved access to quality, swift and visible justice and the transformation of our institutions and systems.

Our Courts system is the core business of the Department and the first point of contact with the public. Chairperson, it is for this reason that I would to spend more time on this matter. The Director General and Senior Managers will provide more details, over the next few days on some of the issues raised in my presentation.

Massive resources and effort have accordingly gone into transforming our court systems and processes. It is for this reason that for the next few years we will continue to seek ways to improve access to our court system, to address problems around case backlogs and case management. Through Re Aga Boswa, processes at the Unit level and court level have been reengineered to streamline organizational and management structures by introducing, among others:

Sound management of the court support services, including enhancement of quality management and transformation of language services:

• Refinement of the KwaZulu Natal court management model and identification of best practices to inform roll out to other Provinces;
• Easy access to justice for women, children, disabled, elderly and rural communities and improved quality of life for these vulnerable groups. Particular attention will also be paid to sexual offences and other forms of abuse against women and children with more specialized investigators to be made available and establish additional sexual offences courts.

The Department will also continue to improve in areas such as rural and remote areas where the need is also more acute. It is also critical that the improved access to court facilities is accompanied by better security so that users can feel safe in our court rooms. Security is therefore being prioritized.

Our aim is to enable the judiciary and the prosecution to perform their duties optimally. This will be done through the allocation of sufficient resources (human and material) to ensure the effective and efficient court services and proper support.

We will also continue with the process of transforming the Judicial system, its processes and structure. In order to appoint more females and black judges, it is imperative that we increase the pool from which candidates for appointment are drawn. We will also continue with efforts to strengthen the Office of the Chief Justice by creating a support structure to enable him to execute his role as the leader of the judiciary.

With regard to specialized courts there will be further efforts to mainstream. We also need to rationalize our court system to allow for the efficient use of the infrastructure. In this regard there is a need for improved outputs from the Small Claims Courts. Potentially these courts can be an enabling mechanism in rural areas and townships as economic activity improves in coming years.

NATIONAL PROSECUTING AUTHORITY

Our Constitution and the legal framework encourages the co-operation between government departments and all organs of State, including law enforcement agencies, based on mutual trust and good faith.

Although attempts have been made to formalize cooperation between the different agencies, this process has been very slow. However, a number of service-level agreements have been developed amongst some agencies and are working very well. Of greater importance though, is that at an operational level, the different agencies are cooperating and working with each other very well,

even though no formal protocols have been signed as yet. For example, in the many Specialist Units that have been established, the prosecutors and investigators of SAPS work in close collaboration - sometimes with both investigators and prosecutors co-located in one building. In certain provinces, such as the Eastern Cape, multi-agency task teams, such as the Joint Anti-

Corruption Task Team have been set up with resounding success.

Studies conducted by reputable institutions in South Africa reveal that, whilst the crime rate has decreased in the last three years. Some of our people still feel insecure. To deal with the fear of crime effectively, crime combating efforts will be focused both at the real and perceived levels of crime.

An initiative that has been endorsed by the President is the establishment of Community Courts through the National Prosecuting Authority. These would be established at some of the country's inner-cities that have been the target of increased lawlessness. Crimes varying from petty crimes such as violations of municipal by-laws to serious crimes such as rape, robbery, murder, drug-dealing and house- breakings, have made some of the inner-cities unsafe for people to

live in, especially women and the elderly.

The Community Courts concept is based on a model that was established in the Hatfield area, in Pretoria. The National Prosecuting Authority, South African Police Service, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, University of Pretoria, Department of Social Development, Hatfield CID, City of Tshwane Metropolitan Council, and the Department of Correctional Services established the Hatfield Community Court on 05 April 2004.

In the first few weeks of the operation of the Hatfield Community Court, it demonstrated huge benefits in respect of the speedy finalization of cases (some within hours of arrest and others within a day or two), the appropriate handling of young offenders, petty criminals and community-based sanctions as alternatives to imprisonment. In the first few weeks of its operation, it had already finalized 200 cases with a 100% conviction rate. This joint initiative has seen the law enforcement agencies and communities working together and assuming greater responsibility for providing an effective service to the Hatfield community.

Similarly, joint initiatives with other Government law enforcement agencies on targeted serious crimes such as hijacking and robbery, political violence and urban terror have provided the impetus over the past five years to change the manner in which law enforcement responds to serious crimes. Prosecutors are also beginning to redefine their roles from being the reactive gatekeepers of justice, to becoming proactive crime fighters through influencing decisions about which crimes are to be addressed and how this is to be done. This new approach has played a significant role in the actual reduction of crime levels in the specific crime areas; and is paving the way for an integrated approach to combating crime.

The Special Joint Teams (consisting of the National Prosecuting Authority, South African Police Service, the Special Investigating Unit, National Intelligence Agency, the office of the Auditor General and the Department of Public Service and Administration) established to target and focus on serious crimes will give priority to the following crimes:

• Murder

• Rape (including violence against women and children)

• Bank robberies

• Cash-in-transit heists

• Housebreakings

• Corruption (including corruption in respect of traffic police and licensing

departments)

• Drug dealing

• Theft

In respect of organized crime, the Directorate of Special Operations and SAPS will work together to dismantle the top 200 criminal groups operating in the country. There is also a Task Team for victims of sexual offences comprising the National Prosecuting Authority, Departments of Justice and Constitutional Development, Social Development, Health and Correctional Services, and non-governmental organizations, to develop standardized services that would improve service

delivery and accountability towards victims of sexual offences.

Turning to gender issues, I believe significant progress has been made to enhance women's rights in the last decade. The issue of sexual abuse has been successfully put under the public spotlight and communities are extensively engaged in seeking solutions to the problem. With this sound foundation in place, clearly the focus during the second decade of our democracy has to be on

guaranteeing that the slew of legislation passed makes a tangible difference in the lives of the people of this country. The challenge for us in the next five years is to consolidate these important developments and ensure that the department's mandate is turned into a living reality through improved access to justice, improved service delivery and an efficient, swift and effective modern court system. I believe that a lot still needs to be done to ensure that our collective efforts are fully integrated. I therefore intend to call a Mini Indaba on 12 June 2004 to investigate foci of the various gender units falling under the Justice portfolio with the view to bring about better coordination and efficiency.

We intend to invite a number of key participants such as the CGE, Sexual Offences and Community Affairs unit of the National Prosecuting Authority, the Human Rights Commission, the department's own gender directorate and Portfolio Committee.

MONIES HELD IN TRUST

The management of monies held in trust, such as bail, maintenance and funds going through our Cash Halls and the Masters Unit, has become a priority and will therefore receive urgent attention. Approximately R2 billion per annum flows through 530 Lower Court Cash Hall countrywide. Because this is a largely manual and paper-based transaction environment, fraud and corruption are rife.

Most of these funds are intended for the poor, women and children in the form of maintenance and inheritance payments. Many of these women wholly depend on these funds to support themselves and their families. It is therefore critical that we make every effort to ensure better collection and distribution of these monies held in trust.

The Department is keenly aware of the important role that the Master's Office has to play in the administration of justice and has accordingly declared it as one of the core units of the Department. The Masters' offices and the liquidation industry have in the last year received urgent and serious attention to ensure that proper oversight is exercised over the fiduciary duties performed by attorneys, accountants, liquidators and others who are entrusted with the task of administering affairs of others, particularly minors and people with disabilities.

The challenge for us in the next five years is to consolidate these important developments and ensure that the department's mandate is turned into a living reality through improved access to justice, improved service delivery and an efficient, swift and effective modern court system. I believe that much still needs to be done to ensure that our collective efforts are fully integrated. I therefore intend to call an Indaba in the next few months where all issues relating to gender will be discussed. We intend to invite a number of key participants such as the CGE, Sexual Offences and Community Affairs unit of the National Prosecuting Authority, the Human Rights Commission and the department's own gender directorate.

Once again thank you for inviting us to join you here today at this briefing and I wish you well for the rest of the year.

Thank you!