Government Gazette 14922 STATE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE No. 1162. 7 July 1993 It is hereby notified that the State President has assented of the following Act which is hereby published for general information: No. 90 of 1993: Magistrates Act, 1993. GENERAL EXPLANATORY NOTE: Words in bold type indicate omissions from existing enactments. Words in italics indicate insertions in existing enactments.
To provide for the establishment, constitution, objects and functions of a Magistrates Commission; to further regulate the appointment and remuneration of, and vacation office by, magistrates; to provide that certain conditions of service of magistrates and other judicial officers may be determined by regulation; and to provide for matters in connection therewith.
Act, 1944 (Act No.
"this Act" includes the regulations under section 16.
There is hereby established a commission, to be known as the Magistrates Commission, with the powers and duties conferred on or assigned to it by or under this Act or any other law.
one legal academic designated by the Society of University Teachers of Law.
The chairman shall designate one of the persons referred to in paragraph (a)(iii) to (v), inclusive, as vice-chairman of the Commission, and when the chairman is not available, the vice-chairman shall perform the functions assigned to the chairman by or under this Act.
A member of the Commission shall be appointed for a period not exceeding five years, and any such appointment may be withdrawn by the State President at any time after consultation with the Commission if in his opinion there are sound reasons for doing so.
Any person whose period of office as a member of the Commission has expired, may be reappointed.
A vacancy in the Commission shall not affect the validity of the proceedings or decisions of the Commission.
the independence of the dispensing of justice; and the efficiency of the administration of justice, in the lower courts.
by the chairman or, if he is not available, by the vice-chairman of the Commission; or if both the chairman and the vice-chairman of the Commission are not available, by the majority of the members of the Commission.
The majority of the members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum for a meeting of the Commission.
If both the chairman and the vice-chairman of the Commission are absent from a meeting of the Commission, the members present shall elect one of their number to preside at that meeting.
The person presiding at a meeting of the Commission may regulate the proceedings and procedure thereat, including the quorum for a decision of the Commission, and shall cause minutes to be kept of the proceedings.
The proceedings of the Commission shall take place in camera unless the person presiding at a meeting directs otherwise.
The Commission may establish one or more committees consisting of one or more members of the Commission designated by the Commission and one or more other persons, if any, whom the Commission may appoint for that purpose and for the period determined by it.
The Commission may extend the period of an appointment made by it under subsection (1) or withdraw such appointment during the period referred to in that subsection.
The Commission shall designate a chairman for every committee and, if it deems it necessary, a vice-chairman.
A committee shall, subject to the directions of the Commission, perform such functions of the Commission as the Commission may assign to it.
On completion of the functions assigned to it in terms of subsection (4), a committee shall submit a written report thereon to the Commission, whereupon the committee shall automatically dissolve.
The Commission may at any time dissolve any committee.
The provisions of section 5 shall mutatis mutandis apply to a meeting of a committee.
Commission in the manner which and to whom it deems fit and subject to the provisions of subsection (2), report to the Minister for the information of Parliament on any matter it deems fit.
A report regarding a matter contemplated in subsection (1)(f), shall be tabled in Parliament by the Minister within 14 days after it was presented to him, if Parliament is then in session, or, if Parliament is not then in session, within 14 days after the commencement of its next ensuing session.
A committee may, subject to the directions of the Commission, exercise any of the powers referred to in subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c).
Any person who intentionally obstructs the Commission or a committee in the exercising of its powers under subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c), shall be guilty of an offence and liable upon conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months.
The chairman of the Commission or a member of a committee who is a judge of the Supreme Court, may be paid such allowances for travelling and subsistence expenses incurred by him in the performance of his functions in terms of this Act as the Minister may determine with the concurrence of the Minister of State Expenditure.
A member of the Commission or a committee who is not a judge or magistrate and who is not subject to the laws governing the public service, may be paid such remuneration, including allowances for travelling and subsistence expenses incurred by him in the performance of his functions in terms of this Act, as the Minister may determine with the concurrence of the Minister of State Expenditure.
The work incidental to the performance by the Commission of its functions shall be performed by officers of the Department of Justice designated by the Director-General: Justice, of whom one shall be designated by him as secretary of the Commission.
The Minister shall, after consultation with the Commission, appoint magistrates in respect of lower courts under and subject to the Magistrates' Courts Act.
Subject to the provisions of this Act, the conditions of service of a magistrate shall be determined in accordance with the regulations under section 16.
(a) Subject to the provisions of this section, any person occupying the office of magistrate shall, in respect of that office, be paid a salary in accordance with the scale determined from time to time for his rank and grade by the Minister by notice in the Gazette in consultation with the Commission and after consultation with the Commission for Administration and with the concurrence of the Minister of State Expenditure.
Different categories of salaries and salary scales may be so determined in respect of different categories of magistrates.
A notice in terms of subsection (1) or any provision thereof may commence with effect from a date which may not be more than one year before the date of publication thereof.
The first notice in terms of subsection (1) shall be issued as soon as possible after the commencement of this Act, and thereafter such a notice shall be issued if circumstances, including any revision and adjustment of salaries and allowances of public servants since the latest revision and adjustment of salaries of magistrates, so justify.
A notice issued in terms of subsection (1) shall be tabled in Parliament within 14 days after publication thereof, if Parliament is then in session, or, if Parliament is not then in session, within 14 days after the commencement of its next ensuing session.
If Parliament by resolution disapproves such a notice or any provision thereof, that notice or that provision, as the case may be, shall lapse to the extent to which it is so disapproved with effect from the date on which it is so disapproved.
any right, privilege, obligation or liability acquired, accrued or incurred as at that date under or by virtue of the notice or provision.
The amount of any salary payable in terms of subsection (1), shall be paid from moneys appropriated by Parliament for that purpose.
The salary payable to a magistrate shall not be reduced except by Act of Parliament: Provided that a disapproval contemplated in subsection (4)(b) shall, for the purposes of this subsection, not be deemed to result in a reduction of such salary.
If an officer or employee in the public service is appointed as a magistrate, the period of his service as a magistrate shall be reckoned as part of and continuous with his service in the public service for the purposes of leave, pension and any other condition of service.
A magistrate shall vacate his office on attaining the age of 65 years: Provided that if he attains the said age after the first day of any month, he shall be deemed to attain that age on the first day of the next ensuing month.
A magistrate shall not be suspended or removed from office except in accordance with the provisions of subsections (1), (3), (4) and (5).
on account of incapacity to carry out his duties of office efficiently.
A magistrate so suspended from office shall receive, for the duration of such suspension, no salary or such salary as may be determined by the Minister on the recommendation of the Commission.
A report in which the suspension of a magistrate and the reason therefor are made known, shall be tabled in Parliament by the Minister within 14 days after such suspension, if Parliament is then in session, or, if Parliament is not then in session, within 14 days after the commencement of its next ensuing session.
If Parliament, within 21 days after the report referred to in paragraph (c) was tabled in Parliament, passes a resolution in which the restoration to his office of a magistrate so suspended is recommended, such magistrate shall be restored to his office accordingly.
If Parliament does not pass a resolution in accordance with paragraph (d), the Minister shall confirm the suspension and remove the magistrate concerned from his office.
The Minister shall remove a magistrate from his office if Parliament passes a resolution recommending such removal on the ground of misconduct of the magistrate or on account of his continued ill-health or his incapacity to carry out his duties of office efficiently.
on account of continued ill-health; or for any other reason which the Minister deems sufficient.
Any request of a magistrate contemplated in paragraph (a)(ii) shall be addressed to the Minister so that he receives it at least six calendar months before the date on which the magistrate wishes so to vacate his office, unless the Minister approves a shorter period in a specific case.
to have been retired in accordance with section 15(4) of the Public Service Act, 1984 (Act No. 111 of 1984), as the Minister may direct, and he shall be entitled to such pension benefits as he would have been entitled to under the pensions Act applicable to him if he had been so removed from office or had been so retired, according to the direction of the Minister.
A magistrate shall possess the powers and perform the duties conferred on or assigned to him by or under the laws of the Republic or, in any specific case, by the Minister after consultation with the Commission.
No magistrate shall, without the consent of the Minister, perform any paid work outside his duties of office.
in general, any matter, which is not in conflict with this Act, which is reasonably necessary for the regulation of the conditions of service of judicial officers or any matter in connection with the rights, powers, functions and duties of a judicial officer.
A regulation made under this section shall be in force unless and until Parliament during the session in which the list referred to in section 17 of the Interpretation Act, 1957 (Act No. 33 of 1957), which relates to that regulation, has been laid upon the Table in Parliament, by resolution disapproves the regulation, in which event the regulation shall lapse with effect from a date to be specified in the resolution.
The lapsing of a regulation in terms of this subsection shall not affect the validity of anything done under the regulation prior to the date mentioned in the resolution.
The provisions of this subsection shall not affect the power of the Minister to make a new regulation regarding the matter dealt with by a regulation that has lapsed in terms of paragraph (a).
Any regulation under this section which results in State expenditure, shall be made with the concurrence of the Minister of State Expenditure.
No regulation made under subsection (1), shall contain any provision which affects the service benefits of any magistrate as they existed prior to the date of commencement of this section to his detriment.
Different regulations may be made under subsection (1) in respect of magistrates and other judicial officers.
Amendment of section 9 of Act 32 of 1944, as substituted by section 2 of Act 8 of 1967 and amended by section 4 of Act 53 of 1970, section 8 of Act 102 of 1972, section 11 of Act 29 of 1974, section 24 of Act 94 of 1974, section 1 of Act 28 of 1981 and section 2 of Act 34 of 1986 17.
of this subsection and of section 10, the Minister may appoint for any district or subdistrict a magistrate, one or more additional magistrates or one or more assistant magistrates and for every regional division a magistrate or magistrates.
Any person who immediately before the date of commencement of section 10 occupied the office of magistrate or held the substantive rank of magistrate or regional magistrate, shall as from the said date be deemed to have been duly appointed in terms of the provisions of section 9 of the Magistrates' Courts Act read with section 10 of this Act, and the provisions of this Act shall be applicable to such person.
The salary paid to a magistrate immediately before the date of commencement of the first notice contemplated in section 12(1), or any provision thereof which may be applicable to him, shall be deemed to have been determined in terms of that section.
The conditions of service applicable to a person referred to in subsection (1) immediately before the date of commencement of section 12, shall not be affected to his detriment, and no such condition of service shall, after such date, be construed or applied in a manner which is less favourable to the person concerned than the manner in which it was construed or applied immediately before the said date.
measure regarding the duties, functions and powers; or (c) arrangement regarding any administrative function, which applied to a magistrate or other judicial officer immediately before the date of commencement of any regulation under section 16 relating to such matter, shall remain in force until the date on which such regulation commences.
This Act shall be called the Magistrates Act, 1993, and shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by the State President by proclamation in the Gazette.
Different dates may be so fixed in respect of different provisions of this Act.