The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services and of the meeting, Mr. N. Mashimbye (MP), also Head of the Parliamentary delegation, welcomed members of the Departments present.

The Legislative House in Parliament needed to come at operational level, to observe if what the Executive requires to be done is understood by people at ground roots level and is also being properly implemented. Such a visit is also necessitated by the provisions of the Constitution. The visit was also aimed at identifying any blockages caused by legislation passed by Parliament in effective service delivery within the Criminal Justice System, with the primary focus on the prosecutors and the judiciary. Participation by all role players within the criminal justice system component under one roof was viewed as an opportunity to enhance communication within the various departments and to look at ways of creating synergy to have an effective system. It was further noted that the aim of the Portfolio Committees’ visit was not to play a role as a super police force.

The following problem areas were identified as barriers and a hindrance in proper administration of the Criminal Justice System:-

- Lack of discipline;

- Late arrival of prisoners;

- Lack of communication between police and the prison;

- Loss of police dockets;

- Private attorneys not arriving on time in court;

- State of court buildings; and

Hence it was necessary for the joint visit to be conducted as opposed to previous years where only the Portfolio Committee of Justice and Constitutional Development was involved in the visits.

As a result of the above mentioned, it is imperative to introduce protocols indicating lines of accountability by all parties involved in the proper functioning of the criminal justice system.

Mr Skosana welcomed the visits by members of the Portfolio Committees. He emphasized the vital role played by all members within the criminal justice system to collectively work on unblocking the systems for effective service delivery and not to blame one another about frustrations experienced by various departments falling within the criminal justice system. The visit was made possible after previous visits by the Portfolio Committee for Justice and Constitutional Development, who prepared a report for purposes of discussion.

In the event, the report of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development reflected the following information:

- Population of prisoners countrywide;

- Obtained information from SAPS about outstanding cases; and

- Blockages within the courts were identified.

The above-mentioned report was circulated.

The presentation was summarized as follows:-

• Ever-increasing population of prisoners awaiting trial in prison which resulted in over-crowding, i.e. in the Johannesburg Prison, a population of 8060 was recorded as against the required number of 2050. These conditions were unacceptable and against the provisions of the Health and Safety Act. The conditions also have an impact on the rapid spread of HIV and Aids.

• There is lack of capacity to deal with day-to-day operations of the prison efficiently.

• Lack of capacity in dealing with patients who are ill and patients who are in need of psychiatric treatment.

• Lack of proper accommodation for children under eighteen in custody.

• Reluctance of judicial officials in imposing correctional supervision as an alternative option to imprisonment.

• The process of plea-bargaining has not been fully explored to maximize output towards the reduction of the number of prisoners awaiting trial.

• It has been noted that Saturday courts were established to facilitate the reduction of case backlogs, which would impact positively on the reduction of the number of prisoners awaiting trial. However, complaints were noted that the Randburg Court was not effective as prisoners would be sent to the court and not have their cases adjudicated upon.

• Section 63 of the Criminal Procedure Act is not being fully implemented by the judiciary. It was reported that a limited number of prisoners were released in Gauteng in terms of the provisions of Section 63.

• Rehabilitation and taking responsibility of the question of awaiting trial prisoners were picked up as issues, which warranted debate at policy level.

• Resource constraints: Inadequate vehicles to transport prisoners.

• Bail: There are a number of prisoners awaiting trial who have received bail of up to a thousand rand. The National Prosecution Authority is not playing an active role for these kinds of cases to be reviewed.

• Death.

• Re-demarcation of boundaries, which need to be aligned with the municipal boundaries.

• Maximum sentences.

• Utilization of Army base as additional prison facilities.

• Utilization of prisoners to render labour to community projects.

• Influx of foreigners to the province influences the crime rate in Gauteng.

• The census report confirmed that there are over a million people staying in Gauteng. The police to population ratio was originally 1 police officer for 213 people and is currently at 1 police officer for 400 people.

• The crime rate in Johannesburg alone forms part of the bulk of statistics recorded nationally.

• Conditions of the Police Stations are appalling.

• There is a high rate of organized crimes requiring special expertise.

• There are only 21 detective units.

• Shortage of Human Resources is also a problem.

• Complexity of investigations (need a lot of assistance, National Prosecution Authority’s involvement has helped), crimes are also dynamic.

• Major events (i.e. World Summit, Cricket World Cup are systematically developed).

• Discipline of members.

• Capacity (ratio of police against people, reservists).

• Corruption: Collusion within agencies and the Public service

• Integration (PCS, Justice, National Prosecution Authority and Metro Police).

• Workload.

• Missing dockets: Security management and securing of dockets.

• Priority crimes: Link with overcrowding of prisons.

• Demarcation: Geographical areas within the Police.

• Information Management with regard to intelligence capacity within the Police Services.

• Community Police Forums.

• High Court: 12 Criminal Courts sit daily and the conviction rate is 84%. Cases referred to the High Court for minimum sentencing create problems i.e. an accused convicted at the Magistrate’s Court for rape can be referred to the High Court for sentence only to have his case delayed as a result of reluctance by a Judge to finalize such cases. The majority of such cases are remitted back to the Magistrate.

• Terms for Acting Judges should be extended because it is difficult to obtain their services to finalize part-heard cases. Policy to regulate minimum terms for appointments of Acting Judges is essential.

• Major problems with automatic Appeals.

• During 2001, the Constitutional Court ruled certain provisions of Section 309 to be unconstitutional which led to an influx of appeals that cannot be handled by the office of the DPP. There is a need to address this matter urgently. A sifting process is required to determine which cases are merit-worthy.

• Saturday courts have proved efficient in most courts in addressing the issue of the backlog.

• Delays due to inexperienced prosecutors, assessors, presiding officers, result in delays in finalizing cases. (A further presentation to be done on the 8^th May 2003).

• Plea bargaining process needs to be fully explored and implemented.

• Bail: Cases of Awaiting Trial Prisoners granted bail of up to a R1 000-00, will be reviewed to alleviate the problem of overcrowding in prisons.

• Conviction rate statistics: convictions against rate of withdrawals and acquittals.

• Legislation: strategy to ensure implementation of legislation.

• Communication gap: There is a need to maximize communication between the Director of Public Prosecutions, Correctional Services and the Judiciary regarding the implementation of the provisions of Section 63.

• Case backlogs.

• Corruption: dockets are stolen from the offices of prosecutors. Measures need to be put into place to address the problem.

• Court hours: At the Magistrate’s Court, an average of 5 hours are spent in court. At the High Court, an average of 3.4 hours are spent in court.

• There is a need to increase jurisdiction in both District and Regional Courts. Cases referred to the High Court are sent back to the Regional Courts thus delaying finalization of cases.

• Inadequate Human Resources i.e. there are only 65 Regional Court Magistrates to man over 76 courts. Average court hours are 4 hours per day.

• No recording equipment: The quality of recording of proceedings in Courts, is greatly compromised.

• Lack of adequate Legal Aid Officers result in waste of courts’ time.

• Courts’ facilities are in a shocking state i.e., certain courts in Soweto do not have adequate courtrooms.

• Demarcation process needs to be finalized expeditiously. Currently the jurisdiction of the Regional Court extends to Mpumalanga, North West and South of Gauteng.

• District courts in Johannesburg have ten branch courts. The increased workload has resulted in accommodation problems.

• There is a National coverage plan to set up Justice centers: Already set up 37 centres and still to set up 23 more.

• Taken a strategy decision in acknowledging that there are other institutions doing the same job i.e. Universities and NGO’s. Meetings were held with those institutions and an agreement was reached with them to render a service for the Legal Aid Board. Performance measures are in place.

• There is a project on the Plea Bargaining process in conjunction with Justice. The pilot sites are in KwaZulu-Natal and Port Elizabeth.

• A project on a program of legal internship has been started which gives aspirant lawyers an opportunity to acquire experience and a better understanding of the functions of the legal system.

• There are Justice Centres which are linked up to a prison to facilitate legal aid requirements. In KwaZulu-Natal, a special court for children was facilitated through discussions with the Judge President with the involvement of the Justice Centre.

• A means test is a pre-requisite in determining whether a person qualifies for legal aid or not. If Legal Aid is refused, an appeal can be directed to the CEO.

• Rural areas: There is an agreement with the Department of Justice to draw up service level agreements to train people on how to complete forms.

• Demarcation process: The process is taking longer to un-bundle as it coincides with the proposed legislation already discussed with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Judge Presidents which affect the structure of the courts at High Court, Regional and District court levels.

• Court managers’ project provides an enabling environment in terms of resources in the courts. Previously, Magistrates were in charge of the administration. The project resulted in the separation of powers between the judiciary and the administration. The court manager is in charge of facility management, capital works, security, court IT, Human Resource functions and the budget.

• A concept of Case Flow Management is also being introduced. The roles of Registrars and language services are being re-defined. The concept will be driven by the Judge Presidents in all courts. Electronic Systems will also be developed to enhance management of cases. All role players including the Prosecution will be part of the process.

• Implementation of a new service delivery model namely "Re a aga boswa", is also in progress. The model is being implemented as a pilot in KwaZulu-Natal and is due to be rolled over in Gauteng during June/July 2003. The project will alleviate overpopulation in prisons. The project embraces specific focus on the following:-

• Lack of Human Resources: R80 million has been allocated to Justice for the strengthening of the Criminal Justice System. Justice has to report on a quarterly basis as to how the funding is being utilized.

• Intermediaries: Courts are unable to function without intermediaries. The tariffs for their remuneration have been improved.

The Child Justice Bill proposes significant changes to the way children in conflict with the law are managed within the criminal justice system. The two most significant changes proposed, are the introduction of the preliminary inquiry and the wider use of diversion and alternative sentencing. Other important elements seek to promote children’s rights by addressing issues relating to the arrest, assessment, detention, legal representation, trial and sentencing of children. The Bill also requires the setting up of procedures to monitor and assess the proper application of the legislation.

The Child Justice Bill, whilst still in development, was subjected to a cost-effectiveness analysis. It explored and compared the cost-effectiveness of the way children are currently processed by the existing criminal justice system with the system described in the Child Justice Bill. Comparing the cost of the proposed system, revealed that, overall, government was likely to realize significant savings from the full implementation of the Bill, although the Department of Social Development would need to spend more money than they are doing in the current system.

It is important to note that the Child Justice Bill is not being introduced into a vacuum. There is an existing process for taking children through the current system, so the basic framework for services already exists. A systematic approach is required in order to change the child justice system without compromising its current performance. The approach that has been used is to divide the actual implementation of the Bill over the three years of the MTEF cycle immediately following the passing of the legislation.

1. Phasing in of Implementation:

1. Assessment of children in conflict with the law

Assessment of each child, within 48 hours after arrest, by a probation officer prior to the preliminary inquiry, is a requirement of the Child Justice Bill. This would imply that probation officers are assigned to courts to ensure that children are assessed prior to the preliminary inquiry.

One of the ways of ensuring maximum impact is through the establishment of Reception, Assessment and Referral (RAR) Centres and One-Stop Child Justice Centres.

2. Programmes to support Diversion and Community-Based Sentencing:

The Provincial Departments of Social Development are responsible for the provision of programmes for diversion and community-based sentencing. The Department of Social Development, supported by the United Nations technical assistance project, has been working on an action plan to enhance the capacity and use of programmes. This work has included the identification of existing diversion programmes as well as programmes which have potential to be so used. National, provincial and various local Indabas were also held to support the expansion of diversion programmes.

3. Pre-Sentence Reports:

Pre-sentence reports are currently prepared by probation officers, usually at the request of the court. The Child Justice Bill will make pre-sentence reports compulsory except where a child is convicted for a petty offence, but no child may be sentenced to any form of sentence involving residence unless a pre-sentence report is available. In order to make more probation officers available for preparing reports for children, the Department of Social Development has opted to delegate adult probation services to NGOs. This project is presently running in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Randfontein as a one-year pilot project.

The following institutions were consulted:-

• Department of Social Development – National;
• Department of Social Services and Population Development – decentralized offices and residential facilities; and
• United Nations technical assistance project.

4. Blockages experienced by Probation Officers:

1. Prevention Services:

Due to the generic approach being followed in various offices, all efforts are focused on statutory work. Even in offices where specialized units were established, capacity is still too limited to include prevention programmes in the work plans of probation officers. The capacity together with the limited transformation (moving to prevention and early intervention) from probation officers and the statutory work as first priority, are blockages.

2. Early Intervention Services:

• Resistance by prosecutors to have children assessed and diverted out of the criminal justice system.
• Recidivism occurs due to the fact that cases are struck of the court roll in cases where parents/significant others were not informed by the South African Police Service to appear in court.
• Probation officers often render assessment services on rotation basis. When the particular probation officer "on duty" also has to present a report in court, she can often not be notified of cases pending for assessment. These children then enter the criminal justice system without the assistance of a probation officer.
• Statutory work is given first priority by probation services. Limited capacity leads to very few offices implementing their own diversion programmes.
• Venues to assess children who are in detention are in a very poor condition. In police cells, there are often not facilities available to consult children in private.
• Over-aged children in facilities – age assessment.
• Lack of co-ordination and integration between CJS – structures.
• Resolution 7 regarding human resource constraints.

• Pre-sentence reports are at times not given appropriate consideration by the prosecution. It creates the impression to probation officers that they are not rendering a valuable and important service.
• When the report is requested by the defence attorney and the probation officer does not submit a favourable report, the probation officer is not called as a witness. Many hours of work has then been done in vain.
• Requests for pre-sentence reports are not completed accurately by the prosecution. Valuable time is lost in "tracking" the offender and victim before the investigation can commence.
• Johannesburg office, in particular, does not have enough vehicles. The result is that probation officers arrive late at court only to hear that the case has been finalized in their absence.
• Tracking of children within the system.
• Brain drain.

1. Continuum of Care:

• Sentence options for girls are limited as they cannot be referred to reform schools due to the non-existence of a school for girls in Gauteng Province.
• Probation officers are reluctant to convert cases to the children’s court and recommend placement in a school of industry due to the fact that no therapeutic programmes are presented at the schools. A further blockage is the lack of a secure environment, resulting in a high rate of abscondment.
• Absconders.
• Due to the limited capacity, re-integration services are referred to field sections. These cases receive very little attention and often lead to recidivism.
• Involvement with public works.

1. JOHANNESBURG CENTRAL:

A meeting was held with Senior management members of the Police Station. The following matters of concern, were identified:

• Performance of detectives was verified by statistics read:-

• There is a high turn over of staff due to lack of proper career- pathing for detectives in comparison with the uniform police. Most detectives have resigned and taken up opportunities as uniform police where prospects of career-pathing were better. An investigation into the structure of detectives was carried out but it is unknown as to what happened after the investigation.

• Lack of incentives to deserving officials: Officials within the Detectives’ Section complain that they do not get recognition and incentives for outstanding performance.

• CCTV-cameras in the inner city were installed as a result of intervention by Business Against Crime. Business Against Crime has contracted a private company to manage the system. Current system is expensive. There is a need to equip the whole of the Johannesburg area with the CCTV and radio frequency. It was also emphasized that the system will be more effective if it can be managed by SAPS.

• Statistics were requested to indicate trends of crime committed leading to overcrowding in prisons.

• Corruption within the SAPS.

• Escape of prisoners and missing dockets: However, Johannesburg Central reported not having cases involving missing dockets. A mechanism has been put into place to open duplicate dockets in serious cases. Inspection of dockets is carried out regularly.

• Functions rendered by SAPS falling outside their core-function i.e. certification of documents.

• Holding cells have been made available to accommodate at least 800 prisoners from the Johannesburg Prison.

- Service delivery excellence;

- Litigation Unit;

- 184 Review opinions with turn around time of 3.25 days;

- 40 active applications in office;

- 12 High Courts doing criminal trials;

• WLD 2001: 4h20;
• WLD 2002: 4h35;
• National Average 2002: 4h10; and
• Target: 4h45.

• WLD 2001: 4h12;
• WLD 2002: 4h22;
• National Average 2002: 4h00; and
• Target: 4h30.

• WLD 2001: 3h17;
• WLD 2002: 3h02;
• National Average 2002: (November): 3h28; and
• Target: 4h00.

Johannesburg = 87%

East Rand = 82%

West Rand = 76%

Target = 85%

East Rand = 66%

West Rand = 63%

Target = 70%

2002 = 79%

Target = 85%

This unit, consisting of a Deputy Director and 5 advocates, is now firmly established as the leading experts in the country on the operation of Section 252A of the Criminal Procedure Act. It is the sole vehicle for the authorization and monitoring of under-cover operations by the SAPS, and prosecutes such cases mainly in the Lower Courts. The members are handpicked as they have to be on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to take calls from the police and advise them, often giving authorizations telephonically, thus helping to combat crime on the ground level. In essence, they operate as trouble-shooters, often taking high profile and complex cases in the Lower Courts outside their mandate. The members of this Unit are frequently approached for advice by other prosecutors when confronted by evidence on videotape or other monitoring equipment.

As part of their mandate they do all the work of the Anti-Corruption Unit of the SAPS, centralizing all their cases in the Johannesburg Court. With the imminent closure of the Anti-Corruption Unit, this leg of their mandate seems likely to cease. It is envisaged that in future they will personally prosecute cases in which the AFU have obtained an order, which is dependent on a successful prosecution.

• Lack of Human Resources. There are key posts that have been vacant for a year. Additional posts recommended by the Directorate: Efficiency and Advisory Services in 1996 are not yet filled despite the increased workload.

• Salary disparities, lack of career-pathing for Registrars and Interpreters in comparison with other occupational classes within the Department. Recently, Judges’ secretaries’ salaries were upgraded from level 3 to level 7. The Registrars and Interpreters are trailing behind despite the important work that they are performing. There is currently a high turn over of staff due to poor salaries.

• Delays in obtaining assistance from other Institutions in the maintenance of facilities.

• Inadequate financial resources to sustain functions.

• Lack of adequate security. Security officials are not registered with the Security Industry Regulatory Authority.

• Escape from police cells and courtrooms. This is also attributed to Judges’ exercise of discretion in the handling of prisoners in courtrooms.

• Training of security officers.

• Impact of legislation and Constitutional Court judgment of Ntuli versus the State in the handling of appeals.

• More Judges are required to deal with the increased workload. Current vacancies have not been filled.

• Acting Judges appointed for a short duration are not an answer in effective handling of workload.

• It is desirable for the Witwatersrand Local Division to be independent from the Transvaal Provincial Division.

• Lack of accommodation for Judges.

1. LEGAL AID BOARD:

• The Legal Aid Board handles 70% criminal cases and 30% civil cases. The focus is changing towards handling more civil cases due to the high demand from the public.

• Work is often shifted to Judicare as a result of lack of Human Resources to deal with the workload.

• One Legal Aid attorney is assigned per two courts as provided for in the Legal Aid Policy. If there is a need for it to be changed, policy in this regard will have to be reviewed.

• Visits and consultations at prison are always a problem.

• Consultations rooms at Regional Courts are highly inadequate. 20 Attorneys and clients are there simultaneously and clients are not afforded any privacy or confidentiality in their communication with their attorneys.

• Prisoners are brought late to court.

1. JOHANNESBURG MAGISTRATE’S COURT:

• Support services indicated that they do not get co-operation from the judiciary nor from the prosecution.

• No clear role of Court Manager regarding who does what at National and Regional Office leading to a clash of roles.

• Expectations from the Judiciary are very high i.e. there was a time when a ceiling fell off due to heavy rains and the Prosecution was very impatient in the handling of the incident.

• Senior members of the Judiciary report problems to Regional and National Office, bypassing the Court Manager.

• Lack of commitment from Prosecution and the Judiciary in honoring agreed resolutions taken at meetings.

• Lack of Human Resources is a major problem for this institution.

• Lack of financial resources.

• The building is old and needs to be revamped to accommodate current needs of the court. The current infrastructure does not address challenges faced by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. More courtrooms are required.

• Legislation such as the Domestic Violence Act and amendments to the Maintenance Act and Equality Act have created a great need for resources’ allocation and training of court staff.

• Recording equipment is not effective. Certain courts operate without such vital equipment.

• Prosecution does not communicate their needs to the Chief Interpreter. This leads to postponement of cases due to non-availability of foreign interpreters.

• The Library facilities are inadequate to meet the needs of the Judiciary and Prosecution. Jutastat is not in operation.

• Corruption is rife in the institution.

5. JOHANNESBURG COMMERCIAL COURT:

The investigating officers work closely with the prosecutors. The team relationship has assisted in determining which cases are ready for trial and which cases require further investigation to avoid delay in prosecution of cases in court. The following matters for concern were identified:

• Need for a second court to service the East Rand and the West Rand.

• Increased workload: Currently there are 180 dockets per prosecutor. There is a need for more staff to be appointed.

• It takes 6 to 8 weeks of preparation with the investigation before matter is referred to court.

• There is also a high turn-over of staff despite working conditions having been improved.

• There is a need for enabling legislation for the Magistrate to discipline parties contributing to the delay of cases and wastage of court time.

6. VISIT AT DIYAMBO CENTRE:

• There was a guided tour. The place can only accommodate 400 children.

• Before children are admitted, they are taken through an assessment programme.

• There is a skills development center which offers the following: sewing, plumbing, music, catering etc.

• The children at the center indicated that they benefit from the current programme in place to such an extent that they feel motivated not to get involved in crime related activities.

7. VISIT AT SOCIAL SERVICES:

• Magistrates have raised concerns about children in prison not getting guidance from the social workers.

• Social Workers have engaged Treasury in terms of additional funding required to address such issues.

• Limitation of mandate of Social Workers to place more children currently in prison into places of safety e.g. Diyambo can only accommodate 400 children and as such, they are compelled to leave the other children in prison facilities.

• Whenever children are placed at a center, the center must not be inconvenienced by the South African Police Service and parents.

• Children awaiting trial: social workers raised the concern that sentenced children are not their responsibility. Correctional Services must outline expectations about what kind of services should be rendered by Social Development.

• Social Workers have requested the Department of Social Development to assist in terms of children awaiting trial and requiring assistance.

• There was a tour at the cells in the prison for male and female sections including the juvenile section.

• Overcrowding of prisoners in cells was identified i.e. a cell required to accommodate 28, was found to be accommodating double the required number of prisoners.

• Provision is not being made for children of female prisoners, in terms of affording them foster care until such time that their mothers are released from prison.

• It was suggested that the police should arrange a meeting with Social Workers to address the issue.

• Prison cells are required to accommodate 800 juveniles but at the time of the visit, it was found that 1400 juveniles are accommodated.

1. Duplication of Bail Receipts:

Regarding the matter of the duplication of bail receipt books, the matter has been reported to the South African Police Services by the Clerk of the Court, Magistrate’s Court, Johannesburg. Similar cases were also reported from the Hillbrow Court and Randburg Magistrate’s Court. No feedback was obtained from the South African Police Services.

An investigation is going to be carried out and feedback will be forwarded to the Clerk of the Court.

• Information regarding the Laudium incident has been given to the Director and the allegations will be investigated.
• Investigation of such allegations are in progress. Some members are already on suspension.
• Regular inspections of dockets are carried out. In serious cases, duplicate dockets are also opened as a measure to curtail withdrawal of cases due to theft of dockets (mechanism is already in place).

The matter would be discussed at a senior level.

4. Security at Courts:

Meetings with the Judges of the High Court were held last year. The Area Commissioner would discuss further with the Judiciary and formulate a plan.

Police to formulate a plan for implementation of the model in other courts to expedite finalization of cases.

• A pilot project in Sandton and Hillbrow has been implemented and will be rolled out to other areas.
• Escape in courts can be attributed to the exercise of discretion by Judges in the shackling of hardened criminals i.e. during 2002, Khumalo escaped from court after his chains were removed at the direction of a Judge of the High Court.
• Action to be taken by Senior Judge to discuss the matter with his colleagues.
• Policy has to be formulated to address this issue.

1. The Judiciary and the Prosecution are not up to speed in the implementation of Section 63 of the Criminal Procedure Act. Non-implementation of Section 63 is impacting negatively on the number of prisoners awaiting trial.

Action to be taken:

- A training programme will be conducted by Justice System for purpose of sensitizing the Prosecution and the Judiciary about the amendments applicable to Section 63 and other Acts aimed at reducing the number of prisoners awaiting trial.

- Implementation of alternative dispute resolution i.e. a person was arrested for not being in possession of a train ticket to the value of R50,00. The case went to court and could have been dealt with in terms of alternative dispute resolution.

- Introduction of the Plea-bargaining and sifting processes in consultation with Legal Aid.

- Develop policy guidelines and inform members of the Integrated Justice System.

2. Complaint about the in-effectiveness of the Randburg Saturday Court: currently the system is open to abuse:

Currently, the system is open to abuse and functioning of the Saturday Court will be developed and monitored.

National Treasury has approved additional funding for operation of Saturday courts.

3. Influx of automatic appeals attributed to the Constitutional Court judgments, which declared certain provisions of section 309(c) to be unconstitutional, thereby affording all convicted persons an automatic right of appeal:

Matter to be tabled at the legislative component for possible introduction of a sifting process to regulate appeal cases.

Some of the Security officials cannot use guns.

National Treasury has approved additional funding to tighten security at courts.

Courts at high risk were identified and private security was appointed to man such courts. Provision for cash in transit was made, X-ray machines were installed at the access points in courts. Private security appointed subject to a tender.

In the less risky courts, the Department has appointed its own officials who have received basic training. Where private companies’ security officials have been appointed, the court manager is responsible for management of the contract between the Department and the private company.

South African Police Services to facilitate training of Security officials.

- Additional funding has been requested from National Treasury.

Currently Registrars and Interpreters are dissatisfied about their structures.

The Department is currently revamping the entire structure of the interpreting services to improve working conditions of interpreters. A plan has been put in place.

The Department is also looking at the current structure of Registrars, in order to improve their career-pathing. The roles of Registrars are currently being redefined for them to focus on case flow management and quasi-judicial functions. All administrative functions will be assigned to the court manager. A plan is already in place.

Currently there is a pilot project in Durban being implemented until May 2003. The pilot phase will be reviewed and a plan on the roll-out will be formulated. It is envisaged that the roll-out plan will start in Gauteng and the Western Cape from the 1^st July 2003. The project will also address the resource problems.

8. Case flow management:

Introduction of Case Flow Management to alleviate case backlogs is being implemented.

The Department is in the process of implementing a new service delivery model through project "Re aga boswa". The new concept of introduction of Case Flow Management will be implemented in the courts. The process will be led by a Judge with the involvement of a Prosecutor, and all roleplayers. This will also entail joint planning on the issues of the budget.

The pilot will be implemented with effect from August 2003 in:

• Johannesburg High Court;
• Cape Town High Court;
• Durban; and
• Soshanguve Magistrate’s Court in Pretoria.

A roll out plan will be discussed after August 2003.

9. Corruption:

Thirty (30) Officials of the Department of Justice have been charged with corruption and other forms of misconduct. Sixteen (16) are on suspension with pay for serious offences.

The office of the Chief Financial Officer has established a separate unit to deal with financial misconduct.

The Department will interact with the police to ensure that such cases are fast-tracked in the finalization phase.

10. Management of relations at the Magistrate’s Court, Johannesburg:

Currently, there is no co-operation between the Judiciary, Administration or the Prosecution.

A meeting was held on Friday 15^th May 2003 with the Judiciary, Prosecution and Administration to discuss the matter.

11. Outstanding cases i.e. there are cases where accused people have been convicted and not yet sentenced:

Department of Justice is to initiate a process within a month of formulating a plan on this matter which will involve:-

• Re-visit all cases which affect awaiting trial prisoners;

• Monitor the length of cases of people in custody, look at the offence and circumstances, where possible release; and

• Organize a tour with the Judiciary and Prosecution to Correctional Services.

Ms Camerer was assigned the task to sensitize on the issue regarding the attitude of Judges.

12. Foreign language interpreters – non-availability of foreign interpreters lead to postponement of cases:

Department of Justice is engaging institutions regarding the accreditation of foreign interpreters in the country in consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

• Established a task team to address the problem;
• Developed action plan;
• Monitoring of statistics is in place;
• There is a Pilot Project in Durban-Westville, on restorative justice, a foreign concept from Canada, regarding which a concept document has been developed; and an
• Inmate tracking system will commence soon.

• Recruitment of professionals;
• Strengthen inter-departmental relations;
• Finalize agreement on utilization of the police cells at Johannesburg Central Police Station; and
• Consider alternative accommodation i.e. Army Base.

1. Terminally ill prisoners:

• Consultation with the Judiciary is in progress; and
• Approach hospice institutions with facilities to accommodate terminally ill prisoners.

1. Children in prison:

Action to be taken:

There is a need to maximize utilization of other care centers.

2. Rehabilitation:

• Review policies regarding the involvement of NGOs;

- Audit all Rehabilitation programmes; and

1. Recruitment of professionals:

• Review policy on remuneration in consultation with the DPSA in order to attract suitable candidates; and
• Improve relations with the Pharmacy Board.

1. Corruption:

Such cases are being investigated with the involvement of the Intelligence and Police on an ongoing basis.

• Collate information of Prisoners Awaiting Trial, who have been granted bail of up to a thousand rand.

• Requisition all prisoners falling within the above category to appear in court for review of their bail.

• All prosecutors have been instructed not to oppose bail application for less serious offences.

• The above plan will start before the end of May 2003.

1. Escape of prisoners from court:

Action to be taken:

The Director of Public Prosecutions will liaise with the Judges presiding in cases of dangerous accused persons before hand for appropriate measures to be taken.

2. Backlog of appeals due to Constitutional Court judgment:

Additional Appeal Court sittings are arranged in consultation with the Senior Judge for the recess periods on an on-going basis.

Parliament to look into the possibility of drafting a bill to introduce a sifting process. If possible, support should be sought from the Judiciary.

1. Rendering of pre-sentencing reports for Prisoners Awaiting Trial. Children have been identified as a core-function within the Department of Social Development. Limited Human Resources’ capacity to deal with all requests.

Action already taken:

In respect of adults, an agreement has been reached with an NGO and the function has now been delegated to NGOs. Requests for reports on the consideration of parole have to go via the Head of Correctional Services.

2. No legislation for Children Awaiting Trial suffering from HIV and AIDS. Courts are reluctant to release them.
3. Age assessment:

No clarity on whether it is the responsibility of the Magistrate or Social Services to assess the age of children appearing in court.

Liaised with the Rand Clinic to do X-rays on the hand of the child to determine his/her age.

- All outstanding centers will be established before the end of this financial year.

- Approved salary structures will be implemented before the end of the financial year.

- Performance management system has been put in to place to address the problem.

- There are plans designed to address quality on civil and criminal matters.

• Kick start stakeholder forums including the Prosecution.

4. Inadequate consultation space in courts:

Legal Aid Board to contact the Court Manager of the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court to address the problem of consultation space.

Legal Aid Board to raise the problem with its Communication Department to market services directly to the public.

6. Legal Aid Board to re-visit provision to make application forms available at Correctional Services:

A project in KwaZulu-Natal was launched to fast-track the speedy finalization of cases involving children and the said project will be expanded to address the issue of children in prisons in Johannesburg.

7. Policy of Legal Aid Board in respect of appointment of legal aid lawyers needs to be re-visited:

Policy of Legal Aid Board to afford Legal Aid to accused persons after they have been charged and appeared in court needs to be revisited on an urgent basis, because it is in contradiction with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act.

8. Ratio of professional assistance against the number of courts:

The policy of the Legal Aid Board will be re-viewed to make provision for the required additional professional assistance.

Mr Elliot Ristow, Manager of Coke, welcomed everyone present and stated that they are privileged to have the Committees meeting at the BAC Centre. He further told a brief story about the company whose Head Office is in Atlanta in America.

The Chairperson then handed over to Mr Kevin Hustler, Managing Director, Business Against Crime, Eastern Cape to tell the delegates about the logistics.

Mr Hustler mentioned that it is a great honour for BAC to host the delegates; welcomed members of the Committees to the Eastern Cape and stated the logistics. He further introduced Ms Jana Naome, BAC Programme Manager who will be available throughout the visit to assist the Committee.

The attendance register for the Eastern Cape visit is attached as Annexure A.

Mr JP Somyalo and Dr Delport made apologies.

3. Introduction:

The Chairperson informed everyone present about the purpose of the meeting. He mentioned that the members of Parliament have two constitutional tasks, being to deal with legislation as well as to oversee the work of the executive. The committees that are present are the Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committees. The Safety and Security Portfolio Committee should have also been present but could not make it due to other commitments.

The purpose of the visit was to look at the whole Criminal Justice System which is not working as well as it should be, due to the fact that each department within the cluster works in silos with no protocol as to how the matters should be handled by departments within the cluster. Though in some areas, relevant stakeholders have established relations and mechanisms to work together, in other areas there is still no integrated approach established to handle issues within the system.

Role players in CJS need to start sitting together and find out ways of creating mechanisms and solutions in handling of cases e.g. movement and dealing with dockets from commission of the crime up to trial stage.

Therefore the Committee’s aim is to find out what the problems experienced by the role players are, to then find solutions to the identified problems and to ensure that the planned solutions become a reality. He stated the Committee’s aim is also to facilitate and get to an agreed binding protocol in the CJS.

Adv De Lange therefore mentioned that the members of the committee, as politicians, are there to see for themselves problems experienced by stakeholders to also help start creating networks that will lead to a binding protocol. He further informed the meeting that the committees were also in the Eastern Cape to see and acknowledge achievements and the hard work of members within the cluster. Everyone was encouraged to speak freely and state whatever is in one’s mind. Everyone is further free to come up with suggested solutions so that they can be discussed.

The Chairperson then mentioned that there are three issues that need to be dealt with:

1. Capacity;
2. Productivity; and
3. Interactions.

He then left it to the head of each delegation to decide as to how they want to present these issues and he urged everyone to state their problems so that they can be taken up with the relevant ministries.

There are two units being

1. specialised units; and
2. general detective units.

(a) Specialised Units:

These consist of the following: serious and violent crimes, commercial crimes, S.A.N.P. (just closed), anti-corruption unit (just closed), organised crime, witness protection and stock theft units.

(b) General Investigations Unit:

These are sub-divided into two being special investigations and visible police. The vehicle theft unit, which formed part of special investigations, has since been closed. This unit used to have two sections being vehicle identification section and vehicle investigation section. Crime Stop also forms part of the general investigations unit.

4.1 Specialised Units:

1. Serious And Violent Crimes Unit:

(i) Capacity:

This unit is decentralised to areas being Umtata, Queenstown, East London, Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. Each area has got a number of police stations falling under it.

 

The unit in Port Elizabeth has got 54 members, 8 (eight) of whom have been booked off sick on stress related illness. The illness is caused by various factors including disfunction in the unit e.g. workload, and lack of material resources which problem seems to be province-wide.

 

The effects of resolution 7 can also worsen the situation in some ways as members become detectives or go back to uniform branch, as a way to get them out of the detective services. A number of notices have been served in terms of resolution 7 and this will result in 11 (eleven) black officials in Port Elizabeth to address representivity and equity. Resolution 7 has also resulted in a number of members booked off sick.

(ii) Productivity:

Serious and Violent Crimes:

Period Dockets Received Enquiries

October 2002 1615 3

November 2002 1500 3

December 2002 1637 6

January 2003 1612 12

February 2003 1503 19

March 2003 1636 ?

 

Out of the above there were 40 fire-arm related cases.

For the period between October to December 2002, about 416 dockets were solved and for the period between January to April 2003, about 318 dockets were solved.

2. Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences:

The unit has got an allocation of 45 granted posts consisting of 11 inspectors, 19 sergeants, 12 constables and 4 administrative staff. The unit currently has 23 members consisting of 14 inspectors, 3 sergeants, 1 constable and 5 administration clerks. Of these, 23 members have been trained on basic detective work and 7 have not been trained. Further to the above, 15 members have been trained on a family violence, child protection and sexual offences course and 7 have not been trained.

The unit has got an allocation of 13 vehicles, 12 of which are in working condition. 1 (one) is in the garage.

The unit occupies offices in Dorah Nginza Hospital in Zwide. The premises used to be a nurses’ home. There are various other Departments occupying the same building. There is, therefore, a lot of movement in and out of the building. As a result, therefore, the offices are not victim-friendly and there is a lack of security. The unit is, however, in the process of moving to No 22 Grahamstown Road, Port Elizabeth and such will be effected during the last week of May. The Chairperson enquired as to which of the Sexual Offences the unit is handling. The Director then explained that though the unit is supposed to be dealing with all Sexual Offences, it complements the child protection unit and they work together in cases relating to children. The Director further mentioned that the Drakensberg area does not have its own unit and it is serviced through Queenstown. Umtata and Uitenhage are serviced through Port Elizabeth.

Period = November 2001 to 2003

Enquiries = 233

Dockets = 354

Arrests = 215

The unit has got 44 members granted. However, it currently consists of 37 members. 3 (three) of the current members have been booked off sick and 2 (two) have been taken by the joint anticorruption task team. All members have gone through the basic detective training except the new commander who has just been transferred to the unit.

17 vehicles have been allocated to the unit; 2 (two) of which are in the garage; 1 (one) with the task team and 1 (one) with the organised crime unit. Therefore they are operating with13 vehicles.

The Director mentioned that there is sufficient accommodation for the unit. 

Currently the unit operates in two areas being Port Elizabeth and East London. They are currently in the process of opening another unit in Umtata. The unit currently has 36 members. A further 23 has been allocated in terms of resolution 7. In total there will be 78 members when resolution 7 is finalised. All members have undergone basic detective course.

There is sufficient accommodation for the unit.

This unit is headed by Director Botha.

There are 16 officers stationed in Port Elizabeth. About 76 cases per day are recorded through the process to produce S.A.P. 69’s. On average, it takes no longer than 14 days to obtain a report and the National aim is 40 days. Where there are no criminal convictions, S.A.P 69’s can be produced within 48 hours.

Director Botha mentioned that in Port Elizabeth out of 6162 enquiries made, only 2631 were available. In others there was no information. He mentioned however that the system is working very well and is used as a model. Director Botha also mentioned that the unit collects forensic evidence, packages same and forwards it to the laboratories. It normally takes up to 6 weeks to get results. It was stated that this depends mainly on the transport that collects evidence from court to the laboratory. Sometimes even the investigating officer (IO) takes time to package the evidence and thereby causes delays.

The Ballistics section has a personnel shortage and operates on 90 days’ backlog. Advocate Ntsaluba added that the problems are aggravated by prosecutors who sometimes request for DNA tests late in the trial. This is mainly due to the fact that there is reluctancy to use this type of evidence due to the costs involved. The DNA test is either sent to Cape Town or Pretoria for a report and it takes a while to obtain the results i.e. 2 (two) months. When evidence is sent to the laboratory for analysis, it is accompanied by a letter of request used to put pressure on the laboratory staff. The police are liable for payment of costs.

There are 16 offices in the Province. The granted number of staff is 98, but is currently operating with 59 members, 30 of whom are functional (i.e. do investigations). 7 (seven) have got no expert status. 6 (six) have completed basic training and 1 (one) is still to complete same. The rest have advanced training.

The unit has 16 vehicles. The norm is one vehicle to two officers. 5 new vehicles have been ordered.

This unit now operates under one commander.

There is suitable accommodation for the unit.

The unit currently operates with 16 members out of the 29 posts which are granted. This unit deals with straightforward cases e.g. straightforward murder cases.

Vehicle safeguarding: 903 vehicles were recovered and some of them were given back to the owners. 417 are currently left. The unit is also in possession of 79 loose engines. 71 vehicles have been crushed. The unit is also in possession of 239 non-functional police vehicles and has crushed 250 vehicles.

(i) Capacity:

The unit has 54 members, 14 of whom have not yet undergone basic training and are receiving on-the-job-training. 15 members have not been trained in serious and violent crimes. 38 members need to be trained in the specialised unit. 10 members have been on all relevant courses. 2 (two) members are cleaners and need no training.

Statistics were handed out to the Committee members. The Director indicated that these statistics include cases of the specialised unit. The statistics have got various columns and the following was clarified to the Committee:

Column 2: Includes pending cases;

Column 3: Cases taken to court include cases listed under column 1 and 2;

Column 4: Cases withdrawn before going to court;

Column 5: Untraced cases (not closed but filed);

Column 6: Unfounded or false cases;

Column 7: Unfounded or false cases;

Column 8.1: Cases previously taken to court;

Column 8.2: Finalised cases (convictions);

Column 8.3: Finalised cases (acquittals);

Column 8.4: Cases withdrawn at court;

Column 8.5: Alternative completion e.g. death of accused; and

Column 8.6: Pending cases.

The Director mentioned with great concern that the number of pending cases is very high, as it appears in column 8.6. Most of these cases are dragging and this is an embarrassment to the country and the Criminal Justice System. This is aggravated by under-experienced detectives who find difficulty in investigating cases due to lack of experience. The Director mentioned further that a survey which was conducted, found that there are poor investigations of cases and in some instances get remanded for taking too long until the stage where witnesses have lost interest in the case.

The Chairperson mentioned that the statistics give the Committee a good idea of what is happening. He suggested that the Departments should start looking at developing a Criminal Investigation Manual for Officers and Prosecutors which can assist in job training. Mr Naude added that a manual of this nature is already in the process of being drafted and will be sent to him to look at. Director Magadlela mentioned that his directorate has done a training needs analysis program in which they intend to draw in prosecutors in training them on Detective Services.

The above can be taken further by employing a person (a court nag) who will take all the dockets ready for trial and ensure that the trial will proceed on the trial date e.g. by phoning attorneys, verifying their availability on the date, calling Investigating Officers, ensuring that subpoenas have been done and properly served. This is done is George.

Director Magadlela advised that they have started with the Chairperson’s suggestion in Umtata where they have placed a senior official from the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit at court to ensure that dockets are properly monitored. This, however, has impact on workload of the unit from which the member was drawn as he was relieved of all his other duties.

Police generally have been experiencing problems with the question of mental patients’ observation. They believe it is the duty of the Departments of Justice and that of Health to facilitate and ensure that the patient is duly observed. However, the above two departments expect the police to transport the patients to hospital and back. Recently there has been a meeting in East London between the prosecutors and police but still this problem could not be resolved. The other problem experienced by police is that of subpoenaed state witnesses. It is the investigation officer’s duty to properly serve subpoenas on witnesses. However, in some instances the prosecutor will demand that the police get the witnesses to court. This is hampering service delivery as vehicles move around collecting witnesses. The other problem experienced by police is that of prison overcrowding which spills over to police cells. If a magistrate gives an order to keep a person in jail and the prison officials refuse to keep him, that person is then kept in police cells. This results in escapes, which the police get blamed for.

The Chairperson stressed the need for a formal forum where issues of this nature can be discussed and resolved that the above stated problem could simply be resolved between the two directors i.e. the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director: Detective Services (SAPS). The basis of the solution is to create good interactions amongst the members of the CJS. The Chairperson further stressed the need for a manual to be used by all members of the CJS, which will be able to clearly define the responsibilities of every department, as without clearly defined responsibilities, there can be no proper accountability.

Presentation by Mr Patrick Hundermark:

Mr Hundermark mentioned that as an organisation they had redrawn their mission and vision and that whatever they do as an organization, is based on the above. As a result they came up with 10 strategies to enable them to fulfill their mission, three of which are critical. They have further developed a Business Plan to implement their strategies.

The aim is to have 15 (fifteen) Justice Centres in the region, 10 of which have already been established and 5 (five) are on the way.

Executive level one = 2 (two) posts authorised, 1 (one) filled;

Professional Assistants = 17 (seventeen) posts authorised, 11 (eleven) filled;

Candidate Attorneys = 20 (twenty) candidate attorneys; and

Administration unit = 14 (fourteen) posts authorised, 1 (eleven) filled.

There are (6) six high court units stationed at Port Elizabeth, Cradock, King Williams Town, East London and Bloemfontein.

Each unit consists of 1 (one) manager.

Senior State Advocates = 3;

Junior State Advocates = 4; and

Administration staff = 4.

Mr Hundermark mentioned that they had a problem with recruitment due to the fact that the Professional Assistants (PA’s) could only be employed on a three-year contract. However, since March this year the positions are now permanent and career-pathing of professionals to either litigation or management, has since been developed. The salary scale has also been revised and three levels have been created being 0-5 years, 6-10 years and 11 years or more.

The organisation as stated above is currently training (20) twenty candidate attorneys. Those that do well get appointed permanently as PA’s. This assists in trying to retain their candidates and find attorneys who can be stationed at rural areas as, generally, most attorneys do not like to go to rural areas.

The organisation still appoints attorneys and advocates under Judicare System under certain circumstances e.g. shortage of capacity, conflict of interests and for ethical reasons. The Pro Deo system fell away after the Constitutional Court declared the death sentence to be unconstitutional.

Mr Hundermark mentioned that 59% of their clients are in custody at St Albans Prison. A recent survey conducted showed that in Khayelitsha only 4% of the accused are represented and 96% of them are not. This is a problem regarding the reach issue. However, the organisation is in the process of rolling out Justice Centres and this is working very well. The target set for new cases is 30 cases per month per candidate attorney and 20 cases per month per professional assistant. There is, however, a gap between taken and finalised cases. In some instances, you may find a PA having about 200 pending cases. In most instances, cases get postponed due to lack of communication between the prosecutor and attorney. He mentioned that he attempted to establish the reasons for postponement and was advised by prosecutors that most cases were postponed at the defence’s request. On the other hand, attorneys told him that most cases get postponed at the state’s request. Therefore, it was decided that weekly meetings should be held between the senior executive and the senior public prosecutor to enable them to resolve problems of this nature, maybe by drawing daily statistics of postponements and reasons thereof.

Further to the above, Magistrates can be of assistance in establishing the exact causes of postponements. For the purposes of monitoring the practitioners both employed by the organisation and under JudiCare system, a standard complaint form has been designed. This will ensure that practitioners attend court as they should and those that do not, are dealt with.

Mr Hundermark mentioned that the organisation is aiming at having a practitioner per court especially in Regional Court. They are also looking at paying overtime if practitioners need to work over weekends. To improve productivity in the JudiCare System, they have now provided for a consultation fee of R100,00 per hour for up to 60 days.

Their success rate is measured by acquittals. This is further used to measure the quality of their practitioners. However, care should be exercised as this may also mean two things, either those who get convictions are bad or those with more acquittals do something unethical.

The Chairperson then suggested that statistics be developed wherein closed files will be deducted, identify pending cases and check if it meets the required productivity. Mr Hundermark mentioned that one of the problems with finalisation of cases, is capacity. The organisation has got a national fall out rate of about 67%.

Permanent appointment and the revised scale will also assist on this issue. In the meantime this can, however, be solved by appointing temporary units until the recruitment is completed.

Mr Hundermark mentioned that the organisation and other stakeholders know one another very well and have good interactions with one another under the facilitation of BAC. The Department of Correctional Services does not directly impact on the organisation. The only problem they have is that of Plea-bargaining. In terms of the new Act, the procedures are more time-consuming than the normal informal bargaining they used to have with prosecutors. The Chairperson suggested that the Director Detective Services and DPP look at the mechanisms to deal with plea-bargaining. This may be through identifying which cases can be plea-bargained and appointing people to specialise on this issue.

6. Presentation by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Advocate M.N. Ntsaluba:

The DPP mentioned that for the benefit of the Committee, he will give an overview of the prosecutorial structure in the Eastern Cape as it is slightly different from other cities. In the province, the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) is represented by three offices of Directors of Public Prosecution being Grahamstown, Bisho and Umtata. Port Elizabeth falls under Grahamstown. The province has got three High Courts of equal status and there is a DPP stationed at each court. There are 5 (five) prosecutorial clusters. The western portion of the province has got 3 (three) clusters headed by 2 (two) chief prosecutors with the one heading East London Cluster also heading the Bisho Cluster. The other chief prosecutor heads Queenstown, Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage. The Eastern portion of the province (i.e. former Transkei) has two clusters each headed by a chief prosecutor.

The area of Grahamstown’s jurisdiction comprises cities and small rural towns, some of which do not justify appointment of a prosecutor on full-time basis and are serviced by means of periodical courts. Port Elizabeth is the largest city in this jurisdiction and a third of the prosecutors are located there. They, however, service an area beyond Port Elizabeth. One thing that probably shows lack of alignment, is the fact that for the whole province there is only 1 (one) Regional Court President.

There is a process that was introduced about two years ago whereby people are appointed and trained as aspirant prosecutors and can be permanently appointed after they have undergone this training. This project is jointly run by NPA and Justice College. Therefore at each moment there are trained people waiting to be absorbed.

Grahamstown office consists of:

1 (one) Director of Public Prosecutions;

3 (three) Deputies;

10 Senior State Advocates; and

9 Junior State Advocates.

Port Elizabeth Local Division consists of:

1 (one) Deputy Director;

4 (four) Senior State Advocates; and

3 (three) Junior State Advocates (the fourth one is off sick).

Prosecution at lower courts consists of:

Regional Court Prosecutors;

Senior Public Prosecutors; and

Junior Prosecutors.

There are 34 lower courts in Port Elizabeth area, being 15 Regional Courts, 18 District Courts and 1 (one) traffic court. All appeals emanating from lower courts and full bench appeals are dealt with in Grahamstown but some reviews are done locally.

Prosecution has informally established a special commercial crime unit, which is headed by Mr Van Der Walt. This unit consists of 3 (three) experienced prosecutors and 2 (two) less experienced prosecutors in training. The bulk of Commercial Crimes is around Port Elizabeth. Therefore when a decision was made to roll out the Commercial Crime Court, it was agreed that it be located in Port Elizabeth. The view was also that of taking over work currently done by the joint anti-corruption task team. This unit takes about 6 weeks to have a decision given on a docket.

Ratio of cases per prosecutor:

Each prosecutor must have 80 cases per roll at Regional Court and 130 cases per roll at District Court. On the other hand the norm set by the Magistrates’ Commission is 100 cases per roll at Regional Court and 80 cases per roll at district court.

Period No of days at District Court No of days at Regional Court

January 2003 96 dockets trial ready 188 dockets trial ready

February 2003 79 dockets trial ready 100 dockets trial ready

March 2003 82 dockets trial ready 87 dockets trial ready

April 2003 65 dockets trial ready 89 dockets trial ready

The Chairperson suggested that there be a specific formula to create a correct staff ratio, which can be used to properly measure productivity. He further suggested that the stakeholders should come together and work out a model of uniform data capturing and can even investigate if BAC cannot assist in this regard. The senior public prosecutor reported that a thread that has developed is that for the period December to April there is not much work done with most people taking leave. Unfortunately this is the same period when criminals commit offences. This results in a huge inflow of work with no production.

The senior public prosecutor Ms Barker reported that in most instances about 130 cases a month are ready for trial on the first appearance. However it takes about 8 to 9 months to finalise a case in District Courts and about 18 to 19 months to finalise a case in Regional Court. The problem can be much illustrated by looking at the statistics for the month of March 2003 in district court, which show the following:

The above statistics shows that only a 3^rd of the cases get finalised. There is a backlog of about 493 in district court. The court sitting is on the average 4h20 minutes, losing 40 minutes. They are however, achieving above national average.

In Regional Court, in the year 2002 there were 1790 pending cases, 129 new cases and 122 finalised cases. This means there are 134 cases per court between 15 courts. It should be noted however, that Regional Court is also servicing 29 periodical courts.

In March the court sat for about 3h25 hours per day and about 3h21 hours per day in April, which is just below 4 hours. There are two prosecutors to one court and due to limited space they cannot run more than one court. With the assistance of BAC they started a court in Middelburg. They also received a mobile child court system and have placed same in Humansdorp and Joubertina. They also employed additional magistrates on contract.

There is one domestic violence court. This court works closely with NICRO. They have noted that the Act is subject to abuse by women. They, therefore, have a twenty week abusive partner project and stated how it works. Some cases get channelled to SANCO and some to Stepping Stones.

There is one maintenance court operating from Elizabeth House. The main problem with the court is that the newly appointed maintenance investigator started only three weeks ago. He has no knowledge of the Act and does not possess a driver’s licence. No training was arranged for him and he has just requested the prosecutor to assist him.

This court is running from St Albans Prison every day. It initially started as a postponement court. They are now also conducting a trial for crimes committed within the prison. There is a legal aid officer permanently placed at this court. The court also deals with first appearances if all accused are in custody. There is very good co-operation between the stakeholders in running this court.

The SPP mentioned that for the purposes of productivity, it is good to have experienced people as there are good and bad cases and they are able to keep bad cases off the roll. She then mentioned that out of 528 cases that were brought for decision, only 195 were prosecuted. Most cases are withdrawn in the channelisation court, with about 392 cases being withdrawn at the court. To solve this problem of high withdrawals the Chairperson emphasised the need for community outreach and use of the media to educate the public about how the Criminal Justice System works. This can be in form of conducting analysis for the reasons given by prosecutors for declining to prosecute and going to the public to educate about these issues. This type of community outreach will also assist in keeping the public abreast about developments in service delivery.

There are two bail courts sitting every day. The Integrated Justice System Court Centre (IJS) is also running a pre-trial service centre, which is headed by Vusi Malunga. In this centre, interviews are conducted with each first appearance of the accused. All information given by the accused is verified, previous convictions and pending cases are checked. After this, a report is drawn up where-in it is suggested whether the accused should be granted bail and if so, how much should it be. Unfortunately out of 736 accused that were released, two weeks later, 236 of them were back in custody. The IJS also has two committed members from Correctional Services. These officers, three times a week, go to prison and conduct a survey of people who are prepared to plead guilty and those that need to apply for reduction of bail.

Mr Benson Fihla mentioned that what brought them in was the urgent question of overcrowding in prison. There are about 55 000 awaiting trial prisoners who have just been dumped in prison. 2 000 of these have been granted bail but cannot afford to pay bail. The law has been passed, section 62 (f) to deal with this issue, but is not being implemented.

The Chairperson stated that though the SPP has mentioned that the pre-trial services is doing a lot in getting people out of prison, the statistics in the hands of the Committee still indicates that there are people in prison who are not supposed to have been there. It is therefore very important for mechanisms to be created between Correctional Services and Prosecution to have this Act implemented. He further stressed that this does not mean that everyone granted bail of R1000 or less has to be released in terms of this section, but means that these losses should be evaluated and those that fall under certain categories of crimes, can be released. Advocate Ntsaluba added that there is a national mandate from the NPA to start implementing the section and they will certainly attend to this issue.

The senior public prosecutor suggested that one thing that can assist in reducing the backlog and improving productivity, is having more trial courts. For the period in 2002, there were 6 additional courts running, 3 in district court and 3 in regional court. This resulted in improvement in managing the court roll. They also placed a prosecutor in KwaZakhele and about 1500 dockets were brought by police for guidance. This resulted in a number of dockets being closed and only serious cases coming back to court. Also in Motherwell they got a prosecutor over weekends who looks at the dockets and makes decisions on them and this is working very well. In Governdale they have employed a retired magistrate who is helping in prosecutions in that court and assisted in getting a lot of pleas and therefore finalisation of a lot of cases.

The Chairperson asked if running Saturday courts has been considered and the SPP mentioned that they had difficulty as private attorneys were not willing to attend courts on Saturdays. The Chairperson then suggested that a Saturday court could be run with legal aid attorneys. This suggestion was welcomed by all relevant stakeholders and the executive in Port Elizabeth indicated that she does not foresee any problems as the LAB staff get paid for doing overtime work.

In 2002 they also decided to have magistrates involved in management of their courts by determining what matters are on the roll and remanding cases provisionally to enable attorneys and all other necessities for trial to be ready and only when everything is ready, the matter gets postponed for trial. They have even decided to charge a R10.00 flat fee for dockets’ copies.

The lower courts have not got administration staff and rely on Department of Justice staff. They also do not have a budget of their own other than salaries and appointments. As far as administration goes, things are not going very well. The Court Manager, though good, is not there most of the time as he is utilised in other areas by the Regional Office in other matters. As for interpreters, they also fall under administration and therefore Regional Office. There has not really been a problem with interpreters. However, the new dimension of problems experienced with interpretation is that of foreign interpreters. Lots of people come to court on various charges and request interpretation in their own languages. This creates a problem, is time consuming and expensive. Mr Fihla was of the view that getting foreign interpreters for accused was overreaching democracy. The Chairperson suggested that this matter be seriously looked at, as it can be regulated under law.

The DPP mentioned that the pending rationalisation will impact on Port Elizabeth. If all the appeals emanating from Port Elizabeth will be handled by the Port Elizabeth Local Division then that court will have to be strengthened. This may take the form of increasing personnel in Port Elizabeth and reducing that of Grahamstown. This will be more so if East London goes to Bisho, which will drastically reduce work currently done at Grahamstown. As the office of the NPA, they have decided that they will follow the work.

As prosecution, they are expected to drive the process and chase the targets dragging all other role players. The Integrated Justice Centre has had a relationship building between the stakeholders being SAPS, Correctional Services and Prosecution. As far as Magistrates are concerned, regional magistrates are managing their courts properly. However, poor management of district court magistrates results in poor performance. Advocate Ntsaluba added that this problem is aggravated by the separate pillars of justice now existing. However, in a meeting held earlier this year it was agreed that either side should report the defaulter and necessary steps should be taken. The Chief Magistrate added that the other problem is that these issues get orally reported to him, however, when something is requested in writing nobody is prepared to do so. As a result therefore it becomes difficult to take action against the alleged transgressors.

The Chairperson suggested that a principle decision must be taken to charge transgressors at the Magistrates’ Commission as long as care is taken and proper procedures are followed to avoid a situation where a person who is not supposed to be in the system is kept there because the incorrect procedure was followed.

The last problem is with the lack of secure care centres, which is the duty of the Department of Social Development to build. The Chairperson mentioned that the New Child Justice Bill will address this problem. It is required that all the relevant departments must have an implementation plan. The Act will not be implemented until the departments have proved that they have properly budgeted for it.

Mr Naude started by explaining that as opposed to High Courts, Magistrates’ Courts are creatures of statute and have to operate within the corners of the statute that created them. They have to be careful how they operate as they cannot ask certain questions or cross-examine accused or witnesses. They therefore depend on the work done by the police and presentation of cases by the prosecutor.

There are 13 approved posts, 2 (two) of which are vacant. Appointments have been made but not yet signed by the Minister. There are also 3 temporary magistrates (which brings the number of magistrates to 14). All these magistrates service Port Elizabeth and 29 Periodical Courts in rural areas. These magistrates have got 5 (five) to 20 (twenty) years of experience. However, the newly appointed magistrates have got 1 (one) to 2 (two) years’ experience.

He also highlighted the lack of alignment, clearly illustrated by the fact that there are three Judges’ Presidents, 3 Directors of Public Prosecution, two Chief Magistrates with only one Regional Court President. This has been submitted to the attention of the Managing Director: Court Services at National Office, Mr Jiyane who promised to look at this issue. Mr Jiyane also undertook to conduct a Workstudy investigation and determine the needs of the province before contracts of temporary magistrates can be terminated. He was also requested to look at employing a relief component, which the office currently operates without and the available magistrates are always fully utilised.

Currently there is no proper accommodation. It has been promised, however, that the structure currently being built, will be available for occupation with effect from 1 August 2003. It is, therefore, hoped that then this problem will be solved. The office is also not running its own budget and depends on the administration component for their support services. The problem is that recording machines used are 20 to 30 years old; there is only one per magistrate and therefore they cannot be released for service. They are so old that there is no proper recording as a result of which it becomes difficult to transcribe a record and if an appeal comes about two years down the line after the magistrate has destroyed his notes, it becomes almost impossible to reconstruct the record. Mr Naude mentioned that he approached the Court Manager who indicated that there was no money in the budget to purchase extra machines. (Four machines were delivered in 2002 and others have been ordered). The other problem is also the library, which had no proper control and lots of books were stolen. Now there is some control and the books have been ordered. There is only one JutaStat CD, which is run on an old computer with no printer.

The Regional Court has 2134 outstanding cases meaning there are 169 cases per magistrate. The norm is 100 cases per magistrate. However, on full utilization of court time, the magistrates will be sufficient to handle the workload. Mr Naude expressed his concern about productivity. He mentioned that currently there is an increase in outstanding cases with the courts sitting 2¹/₂ to 3 hours per day. The available court time is approximately 4 hours per day. There are few magistrates who are not working, as they should. The problem is no one wants to put a complaint in writing so that they can be dealt with.

Mr Naude further mentioned one of the main causes of lack of productivity is the police, most of whom are inexperienced. As a result, therefore, they do not know what is required to ensure a conviction. The Director: Detective Services added that the basic problem underlying SAPS is that there are no detectives and constables find themselves having to do detective work. The morale of the police is also low due to resolution 7-transformation. The Chairperson enquired if there was a way that Magistrates can identify these police and come back to report to the Criminal Justice Forum. It was then suggested that perhaps the Magistrate could make an endorsement to this effect on his judgement and instruct that it be referred to the police. Mr Naude also mentioned that the majority of remands are due to witnesses who are not in court because they were not properly subpoenaed. He therefore, cannot authorise a warrant of arrest if there was no personal service. The Chairperson enquired if there are no mechanisms that can be developed to enable them to place another case on the roll if the witnesses in a case initially set down could not be traced.

Mr Naude added that in the Regional Court a case gets postponed twice before it goes on trial. The first postponement is to ensure that there is an attorney to represent the accused; the second postponement is to ensure that the attorney is in possession of the record and is ready to proceed. Only if everything is ready then the matter can be postponed for trial. He therefore, suggested that when the matter is ready for trial, the docket be kept by the prosecutor and the return of service monitored. Should it not be served within a specific period or if served, should it not be personal service, then another case can be placed on the roll.

As far as the Prosecution is concerned, initially they used to have Prosecutors with an average of 10 years’ experience. However, now new prosecutors are placed at Regional Court to deal with serious crimes. They will be losing more prosecutors to the magistracy due to the difference in salary scales. The Department is destabilising itself by paying people with the same qualifications and experience different salaries and thereby creating competition amongst itself. With regard to attorneys, there is a lot of unwillingness to assist in the speedy disposal of cases. They have got a tendency to double book themselves, fail to appear on a trial date, fail to consult timeously or even agree to a trial date having not been paid. A report was written to the Law Society both locally and the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope, but there was no help.

The Chairperson requested copies of all these letters to Chairpersons of the Law Societies and undertook to take the matter up with the Chairperson of the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope. The other solution would be to get the magistrate at court at 9h00 to go through the roll and place everything on record – whoever comes late, must then be dealt with. With regard to legal aid, attorneys are overloaded with cases. For each attorney to have 20 files per month for regional courts, is too much. This has a detrimental effect on the finalisation of cases.

The Regional Court President further suggested that section 108 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act be amended, as it currently does not enable magistrates to hold attorneys liable for contempt for late arrival, and further does away with a subsection, which provides for automatic review. He finally mentioned that there is a strategic workshop of the Judiciary coming up in June whereby there will be discussions in trying to find means of improving the Criminal Justice System.

8. Presentation by Mr Peter Rothman, Chief Magistrate Cluster A (District Court Magistrate):

Mr Rothman started by mentioning that the position of district magistrate is a bit different as they have various quasi-judicial duties which they have to perform including: Mental patients, admissions of guilt, confirmations, confessions, children’s court, civil courts, maintenance court, domestic violence, breach of peace, liquor licenses, informal inquests, search warrants, exhumation of bodies, their removal and reburial, estates, adoptions and consents to marry.

They also are required to chair certain boards e.g. Saltpen (Serebos) Board of which he is currently the chairperson. He then mentioned that the Judicial Manual divided the provinces into clusters. The Eastern Cape Province has two clusters, each headed by Chief Magistrates. Port Elizabeth Magistrates’ Offices fall under cluster A. Cluster A has got 43 (forty-three) magisterial districts with everything centralised at Port Elizabeth cluster. The cluster head is accountable for the running of courts, magistrates’ leave, grievance and acting appointments. He is also a sub-cluster head with five sub-clusters falling under Port Elizabeth. As a result thereof there are a lot of confidential matters coming to his office. In cluster A there is a shortage of magistrates as a result of which 9 (nine) districts are headed by the administration unit who does all the remands. In other districts there is only one magistrate per magistrate’s office, which makes it difficult, should that magistrate be booked off. The relief component consists of only 7 (seven) magistrates for the whole cluster. Request has made for an investigation around the need for appointment of clerical staff to handle quasi-judicial work.

There are 34 magistrates consisting of 1 (one) chief magistrate, 5 (five) senior magistrates, 18 criminal court magistrates, 5 civil court magistrates, 2 maintenance court magistrates, 1 inquest magistrate, 1 children’s court magistrate. Out of the 7 relief magistrates, none are placed in Port Elizabeth.

Magistrates are housed in 8 (eight) different buildings. 5 (five) of these buildings are used temporarily and 3 (three) of them permanently. Accommodation is still a problem until the opening of the new building.

There are not sufficient vehicles and currently they receive assistance from the Prosecution.

Not enough time is spent at court. The norm is 5 (five) hours per day and they spend a little more than 4 hours. Annually they spend 30 000 hours in court with 18 000 hours spent in criminal court and 12 000 in the rest of the courts. The conviction rate in district courts is about 85%.

It was suggested that statistics be drawn up that will enable analysing each court, and identify it’s problems. It was also suggested that a special court dealing with section 342 be created, as lots of hours are spent on it.

There is now a backlog with appeals due to the lapse of leave to appeal. There is a Bill being considered to bring leave to appeal back and will be passed soon. As earlier stated, recording machines are a huge problem. Magistrates are utilised to weekly fix the machines. Not even a single magistrate has got e-mail.

As far as misconduct issues are concerned, the Chief Magistrate indicated that he does not have a problem at all with disciplining magistrates. However, he experiences problems with people who do not want to lodge their complaints in writing.

Approved Filled Vacant

St Albans Medium A 187 184 3

St Albans Medium B 214 209 5

St Albans Maximum 177 194 3

Port Elizabeth 207 197 10

PE (Community Corrections) 48 45 3

NB. The 291 Juveniles kept at Port Elizabeth Prison should be in secure care centres but there are not enough facilities. 31 sentenced juveniles are kept at Port Elizabeth who should have been kept at reformatories’ facilities in the province.

Less than R100 = 24

R101 – R200 = 256

R201 – R500 = 775

R500 – R1000 = 139

ST ALBANS MED. A = 1223

= 2 Awaiting since 1997/08/26 (Chair requested a report on this from DPP).

St Albans Prison Reserve, Walmer, Motherwell, Kwazakhele Sport Centre, New Brighton Court, Bethelsdorp, Gelvandale SAPS, Despatch, Mkoko Kwa Nobuhle SAPS, Allenridge Community Centre.

A. Average Magistrate Court cases per day = 60A/T, 4S

Average Regional Court cases per day = 6

B. Daily average of prisoners treated at Provincial Hospitals:

Medium A: 4 per day

Medium B: 3 per day

Maximum: 6 per day

PE: 4 per week

NB. Mentally ill persons awaiting referral to psychiatric hospitals = 17

(Have psychologically trained personnel)

1720 1720 255

A list of monthly statistics of qualifying awaiting trial prisoners, is forwarded to the Prosecution to try and implement this section but there is no assistance from them. The section is working well in other areas but seemingly there is a problem in Port Elizabeth as there are no awaiting trial prisoners released under this sub-section.

Port Elizabeth 23

St Albans (Med A) 771

The unsentenced prisoners are not a responsibility of the Department of Correctional Services but are a responsibility of the relevant Department of Social Development or Education. This is however, an issue that needs to be deeply debated as no one wants to take responsibility. In the past NICRO used to deal with these prisoners but has since stopped. It was then suggested that legislation clarifying this issue should be passed. The Committee will have a look at this issue and if there is a policy or legislation gap, it will be attended to.

After the analysis of the situation, it was decided that there is a need for centralization of young offenders as well as women offenders. Young offenders have been centralised at Mount Ayliff, Umtata, East London and Cradock. There is still a pending proposal for Port Elizabeth and currently offenders are transferred to Port Elizabeth. Women offenders have been centralised at Lusikisiki, Umtata, East London, Port Elizabeth, Queenstown and Middelburg.

In this regard, inroads have been made with the assistance of BAC, which has played a vital role in building a relationship amongst the stakeholders. The following is being done in an attempt to manage overcrowding in prisons:

(a) Optimum utilization of police cells:

After a survey that was conducted, it was requested that the police cells be utilised to their optimum except in cases where serious crimes have been committed. S.A.P.S. has positively responded to this request except in Lusikisiki. The Chairperson, however, warned that the law allows prisoners to be kept in police cells only for a limited period otherwise they should be kept in prison. He further warned that failure or refusal by prison officials to admit a prisoner despite the court order to that effect, amounts to contempt of court. He therefore advised that to avoid contempt proceedings, they should rather keep a prisoner for the evening and they can then request the court to change an order.

Upon an enquiry as to whether Correctional Services has considered situations of conjugal visits as a way of rehabilitation and humanisation of prisoners, it was stated that there is no capacity and infrastructure to allow such an exercise. It was further enquired whether there are any halfway stations where prisoners who have served most of their sentences are transferred to a place where they can lead a normal life (e.g. houses where prisoners can live). With regard to this issue, it was stated that the infrastructure does not allow that kind of exercise (as there are no houses of that kind). However, Port Elizabeth Prison is used as a release centre where prisoners due to be released, are kept.

(b) Marketing and Implementing of Section 62 (f):

In this regard, courts are encouraged to release qualifying awaiting trial prisoners to correctional supervision in terms of section 62 (f) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977. As a result thereof, the following numbers of prisoners have been released under this section: 58 in Mdantsane, 39 in King Williams Town and 18 in Grahamstown.

10. Presentation by Mrs Ngesi from the Department of Social Development:

1. The Department of Social Development has in total 95 Probation Officers, who are stationed in all the 24 Districts.
2. The Department has lost 2 Probation Officers through resignation and death.
3. The Probation Officers are mainly doing assessments and are unable to do justice to this aspect, due to the fact that they attend court hearings most of the time.
4. The Province still needs more staff as the present staff are unable to do prevention and supervision.
5. The Province has 2 RAR Centres (reception, assessment and referral centres) in Umtata and Uitenhage. The RAR Centre in Uitenhage has 3 appointed Probation Officers and the one in Umtata has 2 Probation Officers.
6. The Provincial Department is experiencing serious problems with regards to transport allocation for the Probation Officers.
7. The Province is planning to employ Assistant Probation Officers who will assist with supervision of youth in conflict with the law and family findings.

With regards to the Nelson Mandela Bay District, there are 3 facilities which are utilized for youth in conflict with the law, i.e. Stepping Stones One Stop Youth Justice Centre, Enkuselweni Secure Care and Erica House:

(a) Stepping Stones One Stop Youth Justice Centre:

In an effort to respond to the problems facing youth and in an attempt to ensure that youth in conflict with the law do not go deep into the system, the Stepping Stones One Stop Youth Justice Centre was started in 1996 with 13 Probation Officers. These Probation Officers were employed on contract basis and only became permanently employed on 01/08/2002. However, there are staffing problems that this Centre faces, as 4 posts are now vacant. 3 Officials left in 2002 through transfer and resignations and last month, another official got employed in another Province.

The Centre has 3 cars that are utilized presently, whilst the other 2 are presently not utilized, as they are under investigation. The Centre is also servicing external courts, like New Brighton, Gelvandale, New Law Courts and the High Court. The Probation Officers are mainly involved in doing assessments, preparing pre-sentence reports for both youth and adult offenders and family findings.

There are 13 000 youth who have gone through the Centre since it started. 50% of the youth went on diversions, 10% were re-offenders, 5% were cases withdrawn (which never went to court), 55% are normal court cases for armed robbery, rape and murder.

The Probation Officers have been trained on the following aspects:

1. Probation Act Training by Justice College;
2. Restorative Justice Approach;
3. Expert Witness;
4. Developmental Assessment;
5. Family Group Conferencing;
6. Minimum Standards;
7. Say Stop (a programme for minor sexual offenders);
8. Professional Assault Response Training;
9. Self-defence Training; and
10. Intermediary.

(b) Enkuselweni Secure Care Centre:

The Enkuselweni Secure Care Centre was operating as a place of safety for children in need of care until it was altered to a secure care facility in 1997. The centre caters for youth in conflict with the law and accommodates 58 boys from all over the Province. There are 2 Social Workers servicing the youth, though according to the organogram, the establishment is supposed to have 3 Social Workers. The ratio for the Social Workers is 1:29 and 1: 28. There are 8 Child Care Workers who engage children in developmental programmes like arts and culture, etc. The Centre is operating with 4 vehicles.

1. 90% of the staff at Enkuselweni have been exposed to Basic Qualification in Secure Care as well as Basic qualification in Child & Youth Care.
2. 50% of the staff have been trained in Professional Assault Response Training.
3. Training on Developmental Assessment has also been done.
4. Training on the Child Justice Bill.
5. Training on minimum standards.

(c) Erica House:

Erica House is a place of safety for children in need of care under the Child Care Act. The Centre caters for 150 children, i.e. 30 babies and toddlers: ages birth to 6 years old, girls: 40, ages 13 – 18 years old, boys: 30, ages 13 – 18.

There are 3 Social Workers operating in the House, but due to the vacancy of the Manager, one is being utilized in that position. The ratio is 1 Social Worker: 50 children. There are 66 Child & Youth Care Workers (3 on stress, 2 being dismissed). The ratio for the Child Care Workers is 1 Child Care Worker: 10 young people and 1 Child Care Worker: 5 babies and toddlers.

The institution is involved with developmental programmes for young people, e.g. President Award for Empowerment of Youth, Life Skills, Pottery, Art, Fabric Painting, Leather Work. The institution has a school on the premises for the young people because some children attend school for the first time when they are 14/15 years of age. Due to upgrading of the facility presently, there are 20 toddlers, 4 babies, 20 girls and 35 boys in the institution. As soon as the upgrading is completed at the end of May 2003, the institution will be able to accommodate up to its full capacity.

1. 90% of the staff at Erica have been exposed to Basic Qualification in Secure Care as well as Basic Qualification in Child & Youth Care.
2. 50% of the staff have been trained on Professional Assault Response Training.
3. Training on Developmental Assessment has also been done.
4. Training on the Child Justice Bill.
5. Training on minimum standards.

1. Lack of resources in the Province, i.e. Industrial school for children:

1. There is only one school of industry in the Province, which is managed by the Department of Education and only takes children from Std 4 onwards. The school of industry is also not transformed in that there are no Child Care Workers employed and the medium of instruction is Afrikaans.
2. The lack of a Reformatory School in the Province is impacting negatively on the youth as the sentenced youth await designation to Reformatory School for unacceptable long periods.

2. Probation officers are not informed when children are arrested, and this results in children going through the system without being assessed.

3. There are no arrangements made when children are being discharged.

4. The age is the biggest problem, due to lack of proof. There are instances where young males, who are 22 years old, misinform courts and claim to be 15, 16 years of age. This is a major problem, as Magistrates rely on age estimation.

5.   Issue of probation officers working over weekends, is a problem, as presently there is no remuneration for working over weekends and public holidays.

6.   Question of awaiting trials in correctional facilities. Clarity is needed with regards to who is responsible for awaiting trials in correctional facilities.

7.   There is an increase in more serious crimes committed by youth.

BRIEFING SESSION: JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CORRECTIONAL SERVCICES PORTFOLIO COMMITTEES

M I N U T E S

Mr L Landers (Chairperson) opened and welcomed everybody. Members were given the opportunity to introduce themselves. Mr Landers explained the purpose of this meeting and the visit and explained that the Portfolio Committees wish the following issues to be examined in respect of each department and it’s components:

1. Capacity;
2. Level of Productivity; and
3. Inter-relationship with other role players.

The Portfolio Committee visited the following institutions:

The Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service, Deputy Provincial Commissioner BA Ntanjana, explained the role of the SAPS.

The Provincial Head of Detectives:

The Provincial Head of Detectives, Assistant Commissioner P T Brown, gave the statistics. Copy is available per hardcopy if requested. He gave the following reasons for delays in Forensic Evidence:

• Late dispatch of forensic evidence to forensic laboratory by investigating officers;
• Not timeously submitting 212 statements by dispatching officers (chain evidence);
• Time delay in postal service;
• Case-load at Ballistics/Forensics – not enough experts to do the necessary analysis;
• Blood alcohol reports long outstanding (Department of Health);
• Written notice required from court before DNA analysis is done (Information that there is a lack of funds at Forensics);
• PM reports long outstanding (Chain evidence incomplete); and
• Rape, J88: Foreign doctors treat the person and leave; long outstanding Hospital Records; availability is also a problem.

• Investigating officers do not prioritise court related cases;
• Delays in obtaining Ballistics and Forensics reports;
• Delays in obtaining PM Reports and Section 212 statements;
• Vague addresses and particulars of victims and witnesses (rural informal settlements);
• Relocation of witnesses to testify;
• Expert witnesses are not decentralized;
• Complainants and witnesses are reluctant to co-operate with investigating officers in fear of the accused;
• Complainants who live outside the province – difficult to contact them;
• Juveniles – investigating officers spend a lot of time at court, because of the following steps which must be followed: Age assessment/first appearance which needs a probation officer; decision by court – parents’ custody / Youth Centre place of safety; Magistrates make decision – reception courts (Verulam/ Ntuzuma).

• Shortage of manpower and vehicles;
• Overloaded caseloads per member;
• Dockets come back too late from court with queries;
• Public Prosecutors are in the habit of making queries in dockets on trial dates whereas discrepancies in witness’ statements could be corrected by oral evidence;
• Accused requests for legal aid;
• Verification of accused persons’ addresses;
• Too short remands;
• Inexperienced Public Prosecutors; and
• Bail applications – investigating officers are spending a lot of time at court – impacting on the availability of investigating officers.

• Warrants of arrest are not issued for witnesses who failed to attend court but instead investigating officers are instructed to re-subpoena witnesses;
• Too many cases are set for trial on the same day – court roll full – crowded out;
• Witnesses are not always warned by court for further trial dates and this impacts negatively on investigating officers as they have to warn witnesses all over again;
• Witnesses/Complainants also get frustrated due to cases being remanded again and again;
• Inexperienced prosecutors;
• Changing of Public Prosecutors in a particular case – new Public Prosecutor has to prepare for the said case;
• Remands are too short;
• Magistrates are not available, resulting in part-heard cases;
• Preferred cases are sent to trial before others (Crowded out/ Legal Council preference);
• Accused not being brought to court from Westville – Case withdrawn because the accused is not at court, but the docket is at court (Ntuzuma/Phoenix);
• Changing of attorneys and advocates;
• Defence counsel ask for remand when things do not work in their favour; and
• Subpoenas- J32’s, are not timeously completed by the court for remand cases.

• Court Manager – IJS;
• Pilot Project – Case Flow Management;
• In-Service Training – IJS; and
• Reading of Case Rolls.

Mr E T Vezi, MP: Is the conviction rate low because of capacity problems or inexperience?

Assistant Commissioner Brown answered that the SAPS has got a training programme at present; they are busy building up the capacity. They are embarking on the basic skills of detectives; and proper inspections will be carried out. New policemen are being appointed. Detectives need to be trained, but the backlog needs addressing.

Mr L Landers, MP: How successful is the case flow system?

Mr C Delport, SAPS, Durban North, explained the case flow system. He said that it is still being piloted and not off the ground as yet. The computerised system is not fully operational. Training is needed. The court system is not linked. He will supply a copy of the case flow management system to the members. Hardcopy is available if requested. Otherwise, a summary of the description of the current system, is as follows:

Arrest: Charged – taken to Police Station;

advised of rights to legal representation;

First Application: rights to legal representation/ Legal Aid & Bail Application [Unopposed];

Bail Application [Opposed Bail];

Further investigation and statements;

Further investigation;

1. Crowded out;
2. Lack of preparation;
3. Witness absent;
4. Withdrawal of legal representation;
5. Accused not present;
6. Docket not present;
7. Charge sheet not available.

The reviewed system in the Criminal Court, Durban, is as follows:

Arrest: Charge taken to Police Station: Rights Explained:

1. DCM Tracking: A/B/C;
2. Category A: Admission of Guilt paid [End of Matter];
3. Category B and C;
4. Bail possibly fixed.

Then the matter divides into Unopposed Bail and Opposed Bail:

And Trial Date set; Pretrial Conference; and further investigation;

Pretrial Conference [Plea Bargain];

Trial – Judgment;

Bail application; Pretrial Conference and Trial Date set; further investigation;

Pretrial Conference [Possession Plea Bargain in terms of Category B Offence];

Trial – Judgment and Sentence [189 days];

[Possible referral in terms of Section 19 to Regional Court];

Mr L Landers, MP: How successful is Forensics?

Assistant Commissioner Brown answered that it is a matter of funding. They are busy decentralising. He does not know how long it will take. A Police Court Manager is managing the flow of documents at Verulam and Ntuzuma courts. They want to implement this across the board as it is making an impact. Prosecution is busy conducting training.

Mr L Landers, MP: He found resistance in certain areas but was of the opinion that this should work as it works elsewhere.

G Naidoo, Chief Prosecutor, Northern Natal: 16 stations have rolled out the IJS.

R Stuart, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Pietermaritzburg: Senior Policemen are needed in courts to filter the system. He said that the Provincial IJS needs to be revived.

Mr M J Langenhoven, Regional Head: Justice: The IJS structure failed because they did not have proper structures and guidelines. Justice National Office is busy working on it.

Judge ND VD Reyden, Durban High Court: The problem lies with the Legal fraternity and not with the police.

E D Mzolo, Senior Magistrate, Durban: Prosecutors do not have time to go through all the dockets. The number of presiding officers remains the same. They have water shortages at Durban Court, which also stops court process.

Superintendent Nel, SAPS: Employing Police Managers at courts would assist. Dockets should not be accepted without the Standing Order Certificate of readiness. Somebody should take responsibility.

Deputy Provincial Commissioner B A Ntanjana: A filtering system will detect problems.

Adv Gey Van Pittius, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions: More manpower is needed.

R Sansom, Chief Prosecutor: The system has become overloaded. Prosecutor pools do read through dockets. Investigators have a lot to investigate. They need to upgrade senior policemen at courts. The IJS Centre was driven by Business Against Crime.

C Marion, DSO: Specialized Investigative staff need to be at court to monitor the to and fro of documents to court.

E T Vezi, MP: The Standing Order Certificate should be monitored.

E J Sibeko, Chief Prosecutor: The problem is inexperienced prosecutors and Investigating Officers.

D Bloem, MP: Police should first investigate then arrest.

Prosecution

Adv R Stuart, Director of Public Prosecutions, explained how the Kwazulu-Natal Prosecuting Authority works. The Directorate of Public Prosecutions is divided into two offices being Durban and Pietermaritzburg. They concentrate mostly on cases going to the High Court.

E J Sibeko, Chief Prosecutor, explained the Durban Lower Court Cluster. The problem is a shortage of Magistrates at the Regional Court. There is not enough floor space at Chatsworth and Wentworth.

E D Mzolo, Senior Magistrate, Durban: The problem is with the air-conditioner and water problems that hamper the efficiency and productivity of court rolls.

Mr M J Langenhoven, Regional Head: Justice, answered that the Department of Public Works will be requested to attend to the above problem.

Mr L Landers, MP: Department of Public Works must be called to attend this meeting.

A document was handed to the meeting from the Office of the Public Prosecutor, relating to the implementation of section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (Act No. 51 of 1977), a hardcopy of which is available on request. The document stated that the Special Crimes Section has been involved in a number of cases where the Plea-Bargaining process has been utilised. All the cases where plea and sentence agreements were entered into, have been finalised with the accused being convicted and sentenced. 12 successful examples and 8 cases where negotiations have commenced, were given. The evaluation was that section 105A procedure has been extremely versatile, assists a great deal in finalising cases speedily and is a method whereby court-time is productively utilised and prevents time wastage. Section 105A procedure is also seen as a mechanism whereby the defence can negotiate lighter sentences than will normally be imposed by court. In a number of cases, negotiations have failed due to the defence insisting on extremely lenient sentences. Plea-bargaining was however welcomed in the light of all the advantages.

Directorate of Special Operations:

L Mrwebi, Directorate of Special Operations:

Besides a limited mandate in terms of its investigative issues, it was meant to complement other law enforcement agencies and not to compete with them. The mandate of the DSO is limited to the following:

• Classic Organised Crime;
• Organised Public Sector Corruption; and
• Serious Complex Financial Crime.

Central to this mandate is the development of partnerships with local law enforcement and intelligence gathering agencies (as well as such international agencies). In practice, this means being able to share information and exchange such information and to easily transfer matters between the DSO and such other investigating agencies, eg:

• Police knowing DSO’s mandate, should be able to provide DSO with information;
• If during the course of DSO’s investigation, eg pre-investigating, they become aware that the matter does not fall within their mandate, they must be able to refer the matter to the police;
• Until recently in this region the DSO sat with a situation where the police refused to co-operate with the DSO, because they said that they had been instructed by their Head Office not to co-operate with the DSO;
• However, there seems to have been a change of heart as now there is full co-operation at regional level with the police. They now freely exchange and provide information, but there is some resistance in certain quarters relating to information and there is presently no mechanism in place to deal with that kind of a situation; and
• The legal framework for such interrelationship is section 31 of the NPA Act 32 of 1998.

1. There is hereby established a committee to be known as the Ministerial Co-ordinating Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee), which may determine-

1. policy guidelines in respect of the functioning of the Directorate of Special Operations;
2. procedures to co-ordinate the activities of the Directorate of Special Operations and other relevant government institutions, including procedures for-

1. the communication and transfer of information regarding matters falling within the operational scope of the Directorate of Special Operations and such institutions; and
2. the transfer of investigations to or from the Directorate of Special Operations and such institutions; and

3. where necessary-

1. the responsibility of the Directorate of Special Operations in respect of specific matters; and
2. the further procedures to be followed for the referral or the assigning of any investigation to the Directorate of Special Operations.

2. The Committee comprises-

1. the Cabinet members responsible for-

1. the Administration of Justice, who is the Chairperson thereof;
2. Correctional Services;
3. Defence;
4. Intelligence Services; and
5. Safety and Security; and

1. any other Cabinet member designated from time to time by the President.

1. The Committee may conduct its business and proceedings at its meetings as it deems fit."

The jurisdictional area covered by DSO is Kwazulu-Natal and the Free State.

Total staff – 101

Investigators - 68

Advocates - 13

Analysts - 3

Forensic Accountant – 1

Administration - 16

Their Investigations are prosecution led which means that with the present complement, they may some day encounter problems.

With few prosecutors at the disposal of DSO, the prosecutor who investigated, cannot also appear in court for obvious reasons. At least two prosecutors are needed for one investigation. The matter is being addressed at Head Office level.

Forensic capacity – 1 (Result is to outsource);

Intelligence capacity – capacity limited but these concerns are being addressed.

• Cases take minimum of six months to investigate.
• Without giving specifics at this stage, productivity is quite satisfactory: The DSO achieved a 90% conviction rate for the previous year.

As the DSO grows and learns, they are of the opinion that they keep on improving. The DSO’s emphasis is on productivity. They emphasize more on plea-bargaining; and also

• Focus on Assets Forfeiture, not necessarily criminal conviction; and
• Money-laundering and racketeering.

The DSO’s matters are mostly dealt with in the Regional Court and High Court.

As far as Regional Court Prosecutions are concerned, the non-availability of court dates and congested court rolls are a problem.

As far as High Court matters are concerned, there is not much of a problem.

Mr Landers, MP: Where does the DSO get the information to investigate?

L Mrwebi, Directorate Special Operations: Representations from the public, police and NIA.

KPMG is doing the forensic investigations. They need to create more CA posts.

Judge Van Der Reyden: Who notifies the media about arrests?

L Mrwebi, Directorate Special Operations: The communications directorate in Pretoria makes the decision to alert the media.

Mr L Landers, MP: The Scorpions are not accountable to anybody and he was of the opinion that that will have to change.

Magistrates:

Magistrates handed in their presentation and a hardcopy is available on request. Their main concerns relating to impediments to service delivery, were the following:

[1] Inadequate judicial post provisioning:

The existing post provisioning norms, according to which judicial posts are created on the basis of the hours which the courts sit, are to be revisited by the Department, in conjunction with the Magistrates’ Commission. It seems that these norms are outdated. The concern the Magistracy have in this regard, is the time it will take between engaging an independent consultant on tender, acceptance of the new norm, investigating the establishment on the basis of the new norm, advertising, selection of candidates, training and eventually filling the posts.

The establishment in Durban was graded, more than a decade ago, as warranting a Special Grade Chief Magistrate, a Chief Magistrate and five Senior Magistrates. It is not known why the post of Chief Magistrate has not been upgraded. Subsequently in 1997, the Cluster System with its attendant additional responsibilities, was introduced. There has been no expansion of the judicial staffing to deal with this aspect. The Family Court Pilot Project was initiated there-after. The introduction of the Domestic Violence Act and the Maintenance Act, had an impact on the workload. Additional, but untrained temporary units have been appointed, which attracts additional difficulties. No specific post for the Equality Court has as yet been created.

Backlogs in the Regional Courts have resulted in District Court Magistrates necessarily having to be assigned to the Regional Court to assist. The Regional Court has no relief component. Once these magistrates have been assigned, they pick up part heard matters and it becomes difficult to get them back. The resulting vacancies in the District Courts are sporadically and temporarily filled with incumbents who have no long-term commitment. These recurring phenomena impact negatively on the productivity level in the District Courts.

The creation of the reception courts was originally intended to be a shared effort between the Regional Court and the District Court bench in order to free up the trial courts in the Regional Division and the District Courts to attend strictly to trial matters. The Regional Court never engaged in that undertaking. The subsequent introduction of the CPP [Court Process Project] in the reception courts, however, had the effect of adding an experimental dimension to an already overloaded working environment. Four district court magistrates were now being utilised to process regional court cases, together with the district court cases, in addition to implementing the CPP. The cumulative effect of these events, has resulted in deterioration in the quality of investigation and an increase in case cycle time. It would seem that the solution would be for the Regional Court to process its own cases within the CPP context.

Urgent intervention and monitoring in this matter is critical.

[2] Lack of sufficient accommodation and amenities:

There has been a rapid increase in the demand on space over the past few years, such as that required by the Family Court Pilot Project, the North Eastern Divorce Court, the restructuring of the Prosecuting Authority, the Administrative Division, the Civil Court and the District Court. The creation of the Equality Court and the space required for IT Training, together with provisioning for Assessors and Lay Assessors have resulted in further pressure on the availability of office space and courtroom space. Access to Information and Administrative Justice Court facilities will likewise impact on the environment. Amenities for conferences, tearooms, interviewing and robing rooms are lacking. The need for intervention here is crucial.

Recurring water shortages and breakdown of the airconditioning chiller has resulted in a loss of court hours.

[3] Data management:

The introduction of appropriate software for the purpose of capturing and managing information remains unaddressed. Court roll statistics, for example, are not available in electronic format and it was expected that this and other aspects relating to information management would be introduced in conjunction with the CPP. It has become increasingly difficult to maintain accurate statistics manually, whilst some of the information is captured electronically by the CPP. It seems that the current operation results in unnecessary duplication of work and expending of time and energy.

[4] Blockages:

The reception court system appears attractive in theory. The volume of cases, however, has resulted in a general deterioration in the quality of the investigative processes. More important, the human factor is the weakest link in what is generally a routine and repetitive task. These factors result in cases often not being trial ready or should not have reached the trial stage at all. Court time is affected negatively and the proportion between trial cases being disposed of and new cases received for trail, goes out of balance. Negative case cycle trends cannot be detected at an early stage without having been electronically captured. This is because in the reception courts, only some of the police stations are linked to the CPP. The current system allows for the detection of negative trends only after the event.

Case management could be rendered more effective and efficient if individual courts, rather than a battery of reception courts, were to process their own cases towards trial readiness. Such a system is less inclined to attract the negative human factor referred to above. This, combined with appropriate software for monitoring cases-in-progress within the CPP, could contribute to better case management.

[5] Security:

There has been a recurring shortage of court orderlies. In the Family Courts, there is a need for ushers/orderlies, especially in the Domestic Violence and Maintenance Courts, where emotions run high and control is necessary.

[6] Case flow management:

A caseflow management system is being developed in collaboration with role players. This, together with a Protocol for Court Management, should result in greater quality and efficiency.

[7] Training:

A diversity of training initiatives for judicial officers is in place and is spread over the year to minimise loss of productivity.

[8] Mobility:

Magistrates are assigned to "hotspots" as the need arises.

[9] The Court Process Project:

The CPP is in its formative stage and should result in accurate data, enhanced productivity and security of documents once fully operational.

High Court:

Judge Van Der Reyden: The High Court has a good relationship with Police and Lower Courts. The weak link is with the Correctional Services. HIV is also a problem in Prisons. They should separate the HIV prisoners. Old Military Camps should also be converted into Prisons. The Prisons are also in a terrible state. He gave an example of a riot that took place at Westville.

Bishop Tolo, MP: Safety of Judges is a problem.

Judge Van der Reyden gave a few examples of how his safety was at risk.

Mr L Landers, MP, asked whether the accommodation at the High Court was sorted out.

Judge Van der Reyden confirmed that it was sorted out.

Deputy Provincial Commissioner B A Ntanjana: In high profile cases, Intelligence briefs them. They are able to monitor and deploy staff for assistance, if they are approached. If there are problems they are ready to assist.

Pinetown and Amanzimtoti courts have a security problem.

Delegation of Department of Public Works welcomed.

Legal Aid Board:

K Meata, Legal Aid Board:

• Gave a brief overview of organisation;
• Main office is in Braamfontein;
• Various Justice Centres render Legal Aid;
• Used to be outsourced;
• Got into financial problems because of being outsourced;
• Could not monitor quality of attorneys;
• Changed the way they work by opening Justice Centres;
• Attorneys get appointed only if they have 3 or more years’ experience;
• Candidate attorneys are employed permanently by the Board;
• The Board is able to monitor quality;
• Attorneys are placed in the District and Regional Court the whole day;
• There are 10 Justice Centres;
• They presently have centres in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Empangeni, Verulam, Pinetown, Vryheid and Newcastle. Opening offices shortly in Ladysmith, Port Shepstone and Emlazi.

• Statistics are available;
• Performance is very important;
• Attorneys enter into a contract;
• Training is crucial, every 2^nd and 3^rd month training is done; and
• Problems get discussed and outside people are approached for help.

• Very pro-active;
• Used to attend and meet with prosecution on a regular basis;
• Helped SAPS with long awaiting trial prisoners - this project unfortunately did not get off the ground;
• They make regular visits to Westville; and
• More and more youngsters are getting assistance from the Legal Aid Board.

Adv Gey Van Pittius, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions: There is a Justice Centre operative at the High Court in Durban.

K Meata, Legal Aid Board: Prosecutors get experience working in the District Courts.

Ms N Mahlawe, MP: Legal Aid Board should consider opening smaller offices in the rural areas.

E T Vezi, MP: What relationship do they have with the Legal Clinics?

K Meata, Legal Aid Board: They have co-operation and agreements with Universities. They take on certain matters, because they are specialists in certain aspects of the law. Legal Aid makes payments to them.

E T Vezi, MP: Do article clerks serve the whole period?

K Meata, Legal Aid Board: The article clerks are taken in for the entire term. The candidate attorneys are only allowed to go to district courts. They have to have an LLB before they can appear in the Regional Court. As far as Plea-bargaining is concerned, they have the same training. Candidate attorneys should also go for the same training.

Mr L Landers, MP: At one stage the Legal Aid Board was in a mess. The appointment of Judge Navsa turned it around. He said that the Legal Aid Board is one of the best-run organisations in the Department. He conveyed his congratulations to the Legal Aid Board.

D Bloem, MP, was of the opinion that when they visit the Durban-Westville Prison, they will find out whether the prisoners are getting told about Legal Aid.

Public Works Department:

Mr L Landers, MP, explained the situation to the Public Works Department relating to the Durban Magistrate’s Court with regard to the water issue. He read a media report, which was quite upsetting.

J Tsimo, Department of Public Works, explained the situation about the new air conditioner that is using more water pressure which in turn the existing pipes cannot handle, therefore they are bursting. The pipes have been fixed, but the whole piping system at the courts needs to be replaced. Money is needed to solve the problem, which needs to be sorted out nationally.

Mr L Landers, MP: Both National Departments must be approached about the problem.

Correctional Services:

T Sibiya, Department of Correctional Services (Westville Prison): They are always challenged about overcrowding. The following matters were raised:

Section 62(f): cannot reduce caseload of Awaiting Trial Prisoners;

Section 72(1): is having a success; and

Section 63(a): bail (the Magistrate should allow bail as this would reduce a lot of the Awaiting Trial Prisoners).

The Welfare has also assisted in getting a lot of Awaiting Trial Prisoners’ numbers down. All prisons are overpopulated at 219% capacity. Statistics will be sent later.

There is not enough staff. Staff are sick or off due to stress.

Correctional Services was of the opinion that emphasis should be on investigation rather than on arrest.

They have difficulty in identifying prisoners who have to go to court.

One (1) prison is under construction but cannot refuse prisoners. Prisoners have to sleep in shifts. Assaults are high amongst inmates and wardens are attacked.

Prisoners are exploiting the shortage of personnel. At present there are 90 prisoners sharing 1 (one) toilet in Westville.

D Bloem, MP: The overcrowding must be dealt with.

Bishop Tolo, MP: What is the relationship with other officials?

T Sibiya, Department of Correctional Services (Westville Prison): They have regular meetings.

E Ngaleka, MP: What is the ratio? How many prison officials are guarding prisoners?

T Sibiya, Department of Correctional Services (Westville Prison): 1 to 100 prisoners.

E Ngaleka, MP: Does the Magistrate deduct the awaiting trial time off once they sentence the prisoners?

Mr L Landers, MP: Yes, they take that into consideration.

E D Mzolo, Magistrate, Durban: The prison should approach the Magistrate for the release of prisoners from bail of R50 – R1000. Mr Mzolo undertook to put pressure on Magistrates to speed up the cases.

Adv Gey Van Pittius, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions: Everybody is worried about the overcrowding. Elsewhere should be looked at to prevent crime. People should also be educated about crime.

Mr D S V Ntshangase, Regional Court President: Overcrowding is a serious concern. Vacancies for Regional Magistrates are not being filled which creates a backlog.

Bishop Tolo, MP: He supports Ms Ngaleka’s sentiments about children being forgotten in prison. He pleaded with the role players to sort the problem out.

E Ngaleka, MP: Our system is destroying lives. Some people do not belong in prison. People have human rights.

A proposal was made that a programme must be developed for the Awaiting Trial Juveniles.

The community must be educated.

Department of Social Development:

R S Byroo, Department of Social Development:

• The provincial office of the Department of Social Development is in Ulundi;
• They have a Midlands Regional Office, Pietermaritzburg Regional Office and Durban Regional Office;
• There are 65 District Offices and 12 institutions;
• The Department of Social Development subsidises organisations like NICRO for services to offenders;
• Probation Services to adults and children: pre-sentence reports, intermediary services, and assessment of children awaiting trial. Presently Probation Services are provided by social workers employed by the Department of Social Development. The following posts for Probation Officers exist in the current financial year in the Province:

• Ulundi Region: 21
• Durban: 24
• Pietermaritzburg: 27
• Midlands: 15

• For the current financial year a minimum of one Probation Post was created at each of the District Offices.

• Assistant Probation Officers: 9

• Reception, Assessment and Referral Centres: The Department has 5 RAR centres. In the Durban Region, they are at Durban and Ntuzuma Courts. The centres were funded from a conditional grant received from the National Department of Social Development. For the current financial year, the services would be incorporated by the Regions. Prior to the first court appearance, the child is brought to the assessment centres for an assessment and a recommendation to court. It was underlined that Probation Officers at the other major courts do undertake assessments of the children arrested.
• A Challenge was that not all children are referred for assessment nor assessed.
• A further Challenge was residential facilities for children awaiting trial.
• Children awaiting trial are accommodated at the following facilities managed by the Department of Social Welfare in the Province:

• Excelsior Place of Safety (Durban) – capacity of 71;
• Ocean View Place of Safety (Durban) girls – capacity of 80;
• Valley View Place of Safety (Durban) boys – capacity of 120;
• Ngwelezane (Ulundi) boys and girls – capacity of 68;
• Pata (Pietermaritzburg) boys – capacity of 70; and
• Greenfields (Pietermaritzburg) girls – capacity of 100.

• Plans are in place to have one secure care centre in each region. Sites have been identified in the Pietermaritzburg and Midlands region. A dormitory at Valley View Place of Safety would be converted to secure care.

• Overcrowding at Excelsior;
• Courts not fetching children on court days;
• Children awaiting trial for long periods; and
• Difficulty experienced in the containment of children in less secure facilities.

• The high number of children awaiting trial; and overcrowding; and
• The long period that children await trial.
• The Department is presently involved in a costing exercise of the Child Justice Bill and developing an implementation plan.

R S Byroo, Department of Social Welfare: We have a good relationship with Justice as we are based at the Courts.

D Bloem, MP: What co-operation do you have from the family of the children?

R S Byroo, Department of Social Welfare: No family wants to see their children in custody. The family is generally available. For families in Kwa-Mashu it is difficult for them to come out.

D Bloem, MP: What are the statistics of how many children there are and what the offences are?

R S Byroo, Department of Social Welfare: Statistics will be made available.

E Ngaleka, MP: What criteria is being used for placing the child in a place of safety, and what are the crimes committed by the young girls?

R S Byroo, Department of Social Welfare: They look at the family circumstances; children are generally placed with the family first. The crimes committed by girls are generally stealing.

The Provincial Head of Detectives, Assistant Commissioner P T Brown undertook to issue a directive to all Detectives to get Welfare involved before children are detained.

Mr E D Mzolo, Magistrate, Durban: There are a lot of reasons why Juvenile cases are not getting finalized.

Mr D Bloem, MP: He pleaded with members to release children who have not done anything serious.

Mr L Landers, MP: A committee needs to sit urgently to deal with the Awaiting Trial Prisoners and children and try to ascertain where and what the problem is.

Mr D S V Ntshangase, Regional Court President: They have a serious problem with intermediaries. The service is rendered by both the Departments of Welfare and trained NGO’s. Probation Officers used to assist.

Mr M J Langenhoven – Regional Head, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development:

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has been re-engineering and is managed by the Justice Board, chaired by the Minister. For operational matters, the Department of Justice has various business units taking care of the Department’s core activities. The Regional Office forms part of the Business Unit: Court Services and the Managing Director is Mr S Jiyane.

Court Services renders a support service to all courts in the country ranging from the Constitutional Court to the smallest Magistrate’s Court. The Department endeavours to assist the courts in their efforts to render a swift, efficient and effective judicial service to all communities.