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Justice system bends under the weight of crime

26 October 2007 Gareth Stokes

Following on from last weeks article FAnews Online noticed a media report on the efficiency of South African courts. It turns out that as many as 70% of cases in the countrys lower courts are removed from the role. This means the accused in these cases ne

This shocking statistic was shared by Justice Department director general, Menzi Simelane, reporting to the national assemblys justice committee recently. The 70% removal rate does not bode well for a country where crime is spiralling out of control. And although these numbers refer specifically to the lower courts, there is evidence to support that the situation prevails at higher courts too.

Nearly 70% of cases getting tossed

Statistics show that of the 1,055,971 cases enrolled in the country at the end of March this year 720,534 were dropped. Simelane correctly notes that "There's a problem in the system, you can't have almost two-thirds of cases withdrawn." This speaks to a severe crisis in South Africas criminal justice system. Apart from already suffering a desperately low conviction rate it now appears our arrest and information gathering in support of these arrests is severely lacking too.

Cases can be withdrawn for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons is insufficient evidence, which in the court's opinion would result in a small chance of a successful conviction. It would be pointless for the case to be taken further in such circumstances. Insufficient evidence also reflects in the increase in wrongful arrests. This raises a number of questions about how the crimes are handled at the first point of contact in the justice system, particularly by the South African Police Service. The SAPS plays a vital role in ensuring that initial facts are correctly collected and recorded. Failures at this point in the justice system should receive immediate attention.

Attending Simelane's presentation, Democratic Alliance MP, Tertius Delport reminded the audience how the public felt about the matter. "You can speak to the general public about the disillusionment about how matters reported to the police are being dealt with."

Time to get it right

The strange thing about South Africa's crime problem is it seems one of the areas where everyone in the country is in agreement. Every citizen and every political party agrees the crime situation is out of control. And without fail, everyone agrees that more has to be done to sort out the problem.

We feel this problem needs to be addressed on all fronts. The police have to improve their front-desk operations to ensure that all arrests are properly carried out, with the appropriate paperwork completed and the evidence correctly gathered in support. The courts need to ensure there is enough manpower to tackle every case that is brought to them so there is never the possibility of throwing out a case due to time or manpower concerns.

And finally a huge shake-up of the country's correctional supervision is required. The number of prison facilities need to be increased to accommodate more criminals and the standards of supervision at these prisons must be uplifted to make it possible for convicted criminals to emerge from their detention rehabilitated.

The poor 'suffer' justice quicker

Nothing reveals the truth about our criminal justice system than to compare the dissimilar fates of the wealthy and poor. Consider a few recent high-profile murder cases those of David Rattray, Brett Kebble and Lucky Dube.

On 26 January this year, well known historian David Rattray was gunned down by a group of men during a botched robbery. The public outcry was massive and resulted in the arrest of five individuals. Of the five arrested, two have already been sentenced to 25 years each for their transgressions. The public can expect similar swift justice in the case of rap musician, Lucky Dube. Five men were arrested for the crime just days after he was killed in a botched hi-jacking. Given the profile of their victim, it is likely these individuals will also be dealt with swiftly.

The anomaly here is the Brett Kebble case. Kebble was also gunned down in an alleged botched hi-jacking. But that is where the similarities end. There is no quick end in sight in this murder trial. Instead the accused are playing blame games and attempting to trade knowledge of other crimes to avoid prosecution.

The difference between these two groups of killers is two-fold. First, those accused in the Kebble saga have money while those accused in the other cases are poverty stricken. And second, the accused in the Kebble saga are well connected while those in the other cases are common man-in-the-street criminals. These cases provide solid proof that the justice system favours the rich over the poor.

Editor's thoughts:
We were amazed by the statistics showing that 70% of cases in our lower courts are struck from the role. This failure in prosecuting petty crimes has a huge knock-on effect on the lawlessness currently blighting South Africa. Too many petty criminals are getting away with entry level crimes only to go on to commit more serious offences. What should be done to address the serious problems in our judicial system? Send your comments to
gareth@fanews.co.za

The article referred to above can be viewed here

 

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