Justice Dept grilled about case backlogs, IT lags and poorly maintained court buildings
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) select committee probed the Justice Department about problems raised by the Auditor-General (AG).
Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel. Picture: X/@DOJCD_ZA
CAPE TOWN - Case backlogs, information technology lags and poorly maintained court buildings were once again in the spotlight in Parliament on Wednesday, as the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) select committee probed the Justice Department about problems raised by the Auditor-General (AG).
Deputy Justice Minister Andries Nel said all of these factors were having an impact on the swift execution of justice.
The Auditor General's office has also flagged manual record keeping as problematic for assessing performance in the courts.
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Despite an unqualified audit opinion, the AG's office said the Justice Department had not produced a credible annual performance report since 2020.
Among the criticisms are delays in issuing child maintenance and protection orders.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has also been singled out for not recovering enough money from the proceeds of crime and not enrolling enough state capture cases.
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Nel said a heavy reliance on the Department of Public Works to maintain court infrastructure is impacting the effective running of the courts.
"Very often, just basic things like fixing the electricity wiring in the court, painting a roof, fixing a leak. Those things can take months and months," said Nel.
Nel said while not a blame game, further reliance on the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) is also impacting digitisation and record keeping in the courts.