UMKHONTO weSizwe Party parliamentary leader Dr John Hlophe has warned the government about budget cuts to the Office of the Chief Justice, stating that this could worsen the country’s courts backlog.
During the budget debate of outgoing Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s office in Parliament this week, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Thembi Simelane announced that the department had been allocated a budget of just under R2.4 billion for the 2024/25 financial year to cover three programmes – administration, superior court services and judicial education and support.
The allocation includes a direct charge to the National Revenue Fund for the remuneration of the country’s 252 permanently appointed judges, who are at times supplemented with acting judges, according to Simelane.
”This budget allocation represents a 13% decrease in the department’s budget relative to the previous financial year. The budget regression necessitates ongoing innovation in the implementation of the department’s expanding programmatic scope in order to keep the superior courts operational,” she said.
Hlophe, formerly Western Cape judge president until he was impeached earlier this year, issued a stern warning against the budget cuts.
”We note that the budget has been decreased by 13%. In real terms this means the courts have to do more and more with less and less. More and more work must be done but with less and less resources. The problem with that is the following: in the case of the higher courts, we all know there is a huge backlog,” he said.
”I’m not aware of a single high court in this country which does not have a backlog. This is as a result of a wide range of factors in criminal cases ranging from load shedding, the other one has to do with the fact that it is often difficult to get prisoners who are appearing in the courts for trial timeously.
“These are all factors that impact on the finalisation of cases timeously and this causes a huge backlog.”
He said in order to resolve the backlogs heads of courts were forced to find solutions by often resorting to calling attorneys and advocates to come and act on a pro bono basis.
”They volunteer their services, they don’t get paid. The problem, of course, the head of court is put at a tremendous disadvantage. In some courts you would have 20 or 30 pro bono advocates or appointments. I don’t know how they manage that, it’s a nightmare,” Hlophe said.
He said administrative staff had not been increased and there were many vacancies throughout the country’s courts which had not been filled and impacted on the quality of the work that must be done.
”At the end of the day some of these pro bono counsel, once they are done with their work, they go back to the [advocates’] bar and the attorneys’ profession,” Hlophe said.
He was aware that in some divisions they were appointed as pro bono judges but they were allocated other work on the normal roll which he described as wrong because they were not appointed as judges, they were appointed pro bono.
Hlophe said the other problem with the courts being short-staffed was that there were accused languishing in jail. In a trial, the accused had been waiting in prison for years and came up for trial and eventually he or she was acquitted.
”This has serious consequences and in the budget I don’t see how that has been factored in,” he said.
Simelane said the Office of the Chief Justice had planned to develop and roll out a Court Online System in superior courts as part of the Integrated Justice Systems.
”The Court Online System has since been developed, piloted, and rolled out in the North Gauteng High Court and the South Gauteng High Court.
“The Office of the Chief Justice had planned to roll out the Court Online system in seven courts in the 2023/24 financial year. However, this target was not met due to system instabilities,” she said.
In March this year, Simelane’s predecessor as justice minister, Ronald Lamola, said the impact of budget cuts would be the obstruction of the expansion of specialised courts for commercial crimes and would impede the full implementation of gender-based violence legislation.
Lamola said: ”A significant increase in case backlogs is anticipated, with an estimated additional 150 000 cases. The delays in processing maintenance cases and administering estates will negatively impact beneficiaries dependent on these funds.
“The budget cuts will significantly constrain the department’s technological operations and infrastructure. Essential system maintenance and the progress achieved with a new data centre are at risk. Planned information and communications technology upgrades and the deployment of the Court Audio Visual System are likely to be delayed, forcing continued reliance on outdated equipment.”