The outgoing Chief Justice of South Africa, Raymond Zondo, said that the judiciary had proposed to the executive that experienced legal practitioners be employed at the Constitutional Court (CC), to provide support to the justices of the CC and make their load lighter. This was said at the Annual Judiciary Day 2024 that was held on 26 July 2024 at the CC, where Justice Zondo presented the judiciary’s 2022/2023 performance statistics. Outgoing Chief Justice Zondo spoke with concern as he admitted that the CC dropped in its fixed target of finalising cases. He said that the CC had a fixed target of 70% for finalised matters but only achieved 55%. Outgoing Chief Justice Zondo pointed out that previously the CC had performed better and said that an investigation into why there was such a big drop is underway.
Judge President of the Mpumalanga Division of the High Courts, Segopotje Mphahlele, with legal practitioner Baitseng Rangata, and Judge President of the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Courts, Thoba Poyo-Dlwati, and Legal Practice Council member Kathleen Matolo-Dlepu and Acting Judge President of the North West Division of the High Court, Tebogo Jeniffer Djaje. (Photo: Kgomotso Ramotsho.)
Outgoing Chief Justice Zondo said that in the overall 13 performance targets that were fixed by the judiciary to be achieved in the superior courts, only 11 have been achieved, representing an achievement of 85%. He pointed out that only two performance targets were not achieved and those were the finalisation of CC matters and the reduction in criminal case backlogs. He said that the judiciary’s target for all superior courts was to reduce the backlog of criminal cases to 30%. ‘Taking all the superior courts [into account] we were not able to achieve that target. We were only able to achieve the average of 47%, which means this will have to be work in progress and hopefully in the next annual report we will perform better,’ outgoing Chief Justice Zondo said.
Outgoing Chief Justice of South Africa Raymond Zondo delivered the 2022/2023 Annual Judiciary Report on 26 July 2024 at the Constitutional Court of South Africa. (Photo: Kgomotso Ramotsho.)
Justice Zondo pointed out that all the superior courts fixed targets for matters to be finalised during the 2022/2023 financial year as follows:
Land Court Judge, Luleka Flatela, and the President of the South African Women Lawyers Association, Nomaswazi Shabangu-Mndawe, attended the Annual Judiciary Day held at the Constitutional Court. (Photo: Kgomotso Ramotsho.)
He said that it would be seen from this that the majority of the superior courts have performed excellently. He added that it should be noted that although the courts fixed their own targets, they fixed very high targets for themselves. Outgoing Chief Justice Zondo said that the while the CC did not reach its target of 70%, it managed to achieve 55%. He added that previously it had done better than 55%, and he pointed out that the issue is being investigated to establish the cause of the decline. However, he said that the public is aware of the challenges the CC is facing, as the public is continually informed of those challenges.
Acting Judge of the Land Court, Diana Mabasa with commissioner of the Judicial Services Commission, Maboku Mangena at the Annual Judiciary Day. (Photo: Kgomotso Ramotsho.)
Outgoing Chief Justice Zondo pointed out that recently the CC took the position that for it to properly discharge its obligations and perform in an acceptable way it will be necessary for an amendment to be made to the Constitution so that it is able to dispose of a number of matters without all the justices of the CC having to take part in every case. Currently, the constitutional requirement that the justices of the CC should sit en banc means that if there are 300 new applications, every justice serving at the court at the time, should take part in all those 300 cases. Whereas if 300 applications arrive at the SCA, because the SCA does not have a constitutional requirement that they must sit en banc, they are able to sit and dispose of those 300 new applications through panels of two. Meaning 12 panels are able to dispose of those cases and share that responsibility among themselves with the responsibility that one justice would have sat in only a number of matters, whereas if those matters were dealt with in the CC, every one of the justices in the CC has to be involved in those 300 matters except when there is a reason for them not to participate.
Outgoing Chief Justice Zondo said: ‘If the Constitutional Court is able, after a constitutional amendment has been made, to sit in panels in terms of disposing of applications, that will make a big difference. That does not necessarily mean that in terms of matters that get heard as appeals, the Constitutional Court would sit in panels. As things stands, we in the Constitutional Court take the view that as far as matters that would be heard are concerned, those matters would still be heard by the full panel. But [in] a lot of other matters, applications would be disposed of without every justice of the Constitutional Court having to be involved.’
Legal practitioner Baitseng Rangata, with Judicial Service Commission, commissioner Maboku Mangena and Law Society of South Africa Exco Member, Thandeka Mpanza at the Constitutional Court. (Photo: Kgomotso Ramotsho.)
Outgoing Chief Justice Zondo said that the public is aware of the judiciary’s efforts to address the resource issues in the CC. He mentioned that they have raised these concerns with the executive, requesting that experienced lawyers be employed who would provide support to the justices of the CC. The judiciary is now awaiting the executive’s response regarding the proposed constitutional amendment, as well as the provision of additional resources.
Kgomotso Ramotsho Cert Journ (Boston) Cert Photography (Vega) is the news reporter at De Rebus.
