House Chair, the ACDP is deeply concerned about the crisis facing the judiciary and this as a result of the critical shortage of judges and their ever-increasing workload.
In the Pretoria-Johannesburg High Courts, more than 120,000 new cases are issued every year, this to be dealt with by 80 or less judges. This excludes the backlog which can run to hundreds of thousands of cases awaiting trial dates.
The Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) previously indicated that certain high courts were issuing civil trial dates far ahead in 2031. That’s in five years’ time! This is totally unacceptable as section 34 of the Constitution guarantees the right to access to the courts. Where this is denied or delayed, it contributes to lawlessness where people may feel they can breach contracts, incur debts that won’t be recovered, or engage in unlawful activities without fear of immediate consequences. Justice delayed is justice denied.
The ACDP is, therefore, heartened that the Minister has announced plans for the implementation of parts of the Moseneke Report to appoint up to 50 new judges. They will clearly also need capacity, additional courts and support, and this the ACDP supports. We as Parliament must ensure that the judiciary—the third arm of the state—is sufficiently resourced to provide speedy justice to the needy.
The ACDP also welcomes the implementation of the long-awaited judicially-led court administration model. This will see transferred administrative functions from the department to the OCJ. This has taken a long time but we are pleased that substantial progress is now being made.
Lastly, the ACDP commends the Constitutional Court for its seminal judgement delivered last week where it found that Parliament has acted unlawfully in blocking the impeachment inquiry into President Ramaphosa—that relating to the Phala Phala matter.
The ACDP was one of the many parties who believed that that report should be referred to an impeachment inquiry. This is now set to happen and illustrates the resilience of our constitutional democracy based on the separation of powers.
I thank you.
