I have been requested to make a presentation on the topic "Court Services, including Personnel". I will do so in my capacity as the Deputy Director General and Head of Court Services in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. In this capacity I have the dedicated responsibility to ensure that proper administrative support is provided to ensure that the judicial arm of government is well supported in the execution of its functions in the courts.
For the purposes of this presentation and in keeping with the overall theme and thrust of this Conference, I will focus on two key aspects, firstly i will deal key practical interventions we are currently engaged with to improve the delivery of court services and secondly, i will propose possible solutions to improve the administration of justice in South Africa, from a policy perspective.
Institutions of democracy have a significant role to play in the pursuit of justice. The justice system is one of the most important pillars of our constitutional democracy.
Africa, 1996, the judicial authority in South Africa is vested in the courts, which are independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is responsible for the administration of justice and constitutional development. The DOJ is accountable to the public and the State in rendering accessible, fair, speedy and cost-effective administration of justice in the interest of a safer and more secure South Africa. In carrying out this mandate, the Department performs these functions in conjunction with the judiciary, prosecuting authority and the various role players such as SAPS, Social Development, Correctional Services and legal representatives.
We must forever remain mindful of the central tenets of the Constitution that the services we render in courts are equitable and accessible, our civil and criminal justice systems must meet the needs of court users in a manner that is efficient, effective and transparent, and both the civil and criminal justice systems must uphold the principles and values espoused by our Constitution.
Naturally those tasked with the administration of justice have a particular responsibility: they must commit themselves to a work ethic and practice that give effect to the human rights framework that lies at the heart of our transforming legal system. In addition, all who make use of our services must be assured of a transparent, fair and efficient legal system that promotes and protects the rights of all court users. We must ensure special attention is given to vulnerable groups, such as women, children, the aged and the disabled and that that justice serves the needs of those in remote rural parts of our country as well as it serves the needs of those in our cities.
The department currently has in excess of 1800 court rooms at 752 court service points and the administrative component that services these points tally approximately 12000 officials.
The Department recently held its Second Court Management Conference with its court managers and chief registrars with the view to critically assessing its current administrative support and deliberating on possible reform measures to significantly improve services in the courts.
I am pleased to announce that the gathering of court managers and chief registrars yielded positive outcomes in that a set of broad administrative objectives had been suggested for improving services in the courts, some of which are aimed at improving the quality of justice, others at reducing the burden imposed by protracted administrative procedures and yet others at increasing overall court efficiency.
ï· The need to achieve a culture of learning.
ï· Ensuring an effective retention strategy so as not to lose personnel to other Departments and Institutions, as is currently the case.
Another significant area that will be receiving attention includes court records management. This area had been to some extent neglected and support to improve the performance of the court recording and archiving functions will receive prioritised attention. The department had already commenced with the tender to improve services in digital recording of all court proceedings and an important feature to ensure that the integrity of recordings are properly secured, quality not compromised and that court clerks accurately capture the records have been built into the new requirement which ensures that all courts will be equipped with court based servers that will in the future be linked to a centralised server. Due to the fact that this element of court functions is one of the most critical requirement internal controls with effective supervision will be put in place. The court server will have a technical resource that will also be able to monitor the frequency and quality of recording inputs from each of the court room to detect and advise on any deficiencies.
All archived cases are scanned and removed to an off-site location while a copy of the file is retained within a server linked to multiple users at the court. This development has immensely benefited the business processes in that the cases are now able to be retrieved within quick turnaround times from the electronic processes and where, in exceptional cases, the original file is requested, the retrieval is done within agreed upon timelines ranging from 2 hours to day.
In the area of technology the department had since 2005 in order to secure reliability of case statistics developed an electronic case management system that was called the Case Roll Management System (CRMS). This system was a stand-alone system that was deployed at 46 courts nationally. The gradual development of the case management system saw it evolve in 2006 to a network based E-scheduler system deployed at 460 networked courts nationally. The system had the capability to capture cases and provide a variety of reports. Thereafter in 2009 the departments global case registration and enterprise case management system called Integrated Case Management System (ICMS) was developed and deployed in all courts.
The ICMS is a case management system that provides for the electronic capture and management of cases. It deals with the management of various types of cases, ranging from criminal, civil, family to deceased estates and other case types. From the moment a case matter presents itself to the department, regardless of the type of case, the first step is to register the case and capture all key information and documentation related to it into a central system for later use.
ICMS generates a Unique Reference Number (URN) assigned per case and the scanning facility allows any case related physical documentation to be digitally captured (scanned) and stored alongside the case for record purposes. This number does not detract from the normal court case reference number.
The system once complete will have the capability to conduct general track and trace functions and provide notifications through SMS and e-mails.
Another development in support of case flow is the implementation of the Audio Visual Remand system which supports the remand of awaiting trial detainees without the inmate having to leave the correctional facility. The system has been deployed to 47 court rooms and 21 Correctional Centres nationally. This project had recently been officially launched by the Minister of Justice, Mr Jeff Radebe and has been received in good spirit within the media and legal fraternity. There has of late been an increase in the requests for the use of the technology in securing the evidence from witnesses who are abroad. The benefits of the system both in terms of business and financial advantages has been immense and contributed significantly to the improvement of case turnaround times in finalising matters.
We are also currently engaged with a project to review the current establishment of the courts. It is a known fact that the current establishment is out-dated in certain areas and notoriously not in keeping with the needs of those courts and the functions that are being performed in those courts. We are also reviewing the positions of personnel that support the administration of the courts, more especially those of court managers to ensure that in these courts specifically in relation to functions that they perform that we have the right people with the right skills. We will be conducting assessments of the current services at some of these courts with the purposes of interrogating our skills levels so that we are able to come up with some type of programs this year to support the resources that support court management.
In this regard we have secured the services of the National Centre of State Courts who have been contracted to conduct the assessments and provide the department with a full scope of the requirements for "courts of good practice" or "model courts" as is commonly known. The pilot sites include the following hub courts in 4 provinces; Johannesburg Magistrates Court and South Gauteng High Court in Gauteng, Port Elizabeth Magistrate Court in the Eastern Cape, Thohoyandou Magistrate Court in Limpopo and Durban Magistrate and High Courts in KwaZulu Natal.
We intend to overhaul the entire court system so that so that the type of interventions and the type of structures talk to the main business of the courts at these centres.
The focus will also concentrate around the support personnel around the court managers on financial and case-flow related business support so that the court managers and support personnel have the skills and competencies to support the court manager in executing the business in terms of the mandate of the courts.
As soon as these courts receive the requisite support within a defined period of 18 months the model will be replicated to other courts so that we incrementally take this process through progressively to as many courts as possible.
The provision of administrative officials with the correct supporting competencies is key to the successful operation at the courts and in this regard we have embarked on intensive training programs to up-skill our current batch of officials, none of whom have been omitted. The list includes court managers, registrars, court clerks, financial managers, supervisors and interpreters.
Delegates will recall during a strategic planning meeting of the senior management of the Department on 12 November 2009, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development ("the Minister") announced his decision to remove the administration of courts from the control of the executive branch of government. This decision was taken in order to enhance the independence of the judiciary. This process is well underway.
To this end the Department has been tasked with finalising the policy framework which will serve as a catalyst for real change and reform in the judicial sector.
improve the quality and delivery of judicial services.
determine the operational phases to give effect to building structures which would allow for an independent judiciary.