Case load in courts crippling justice

The Lenasia Magistrate’s Court has been paralysed by a massive roll and minimal rescources.

Johannesburg - The Lenasia Magistrate’s Court has been paralysed by a massive roll and minimal resources, meaning important trials are unable to go ahead at the court.

Last week, the trial of five men believed to have stolen 200 000 rounds of ammunition from the SANDF had to be postponed yet again because the Lenasia court couldn't cope with its case load.

Gareth de Nysschen, Efthimios Demis Karamitsos, a director and manager at Dave Sheer Guns, and soldiers Teboho Peter Motaung, Diphang John Motloung and his son Thabang have all been charged with the theft of the SANDF ammunition. But as their case was called before magistrate Maggie van der Merwe, the presiding officer was forced to apologise to everyone in attendance.

Describing the situation as “intolerable”, Van der Merwe said the recent demarcation of the court’s jurisdiction had more than doubled over the past year.

Since Justice Minister Michael Masutha altered the jurisdiction of the courts and the areas they serve in November last year, criminal cases from other areas outside of Lenasia, among them Sebokeng, now have to be heard in the Lenasia court.

The Star noted that more than 200 cases were on the roll at the Lenasia court last Wednesday, and during her tirade, magistrate Van der Merwe said this was the norm.

While 200 cases a day might be manageable at a larger court, the Lenasia Regional Court has just four courtrooms on the premises.

Van der Merwe told all of the accused that the huge number of first appearances and bail applications took precedence over trials, as dictated by the law, and this meant that many major trials had stalled in the court.

Despite all her efforts to contact other nearby court houses to try to help alleviate the burden at the court, Van der Merwe said she was simply labelled a “troublemaker” for trying to get them to take on some of the excessive number of cases assigned to her courthouse.

Van der Merwe said the Department of Justice had pledged it would help alleviate the problem at the beginning of next year, but she believed it would take at least a full year to recover from the demarcation “chaos”.

The Dave Sheer Guns case ultimately resulted in a head of the firearms registry in Pretoria, Brigadier Mathapelo Miriam Mangwani, being fired for her corruption in fast-tracking licences for the gun store.

Van der Merwe told the court she acknowledged what an important case it was, but that the bottleneck at the court had become too severe to continue the trial.The court was told that the case would be transferred to the Kagiso Regional Court this week, but that the trial might only continue late next year.

Despite numerous attempts to contact the Department of Justice since Wednesday, its spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga did not respond to e-mail queries, text messages or telephone calls to enquire about the court and its massive backlog.

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shain.germaner@inl.co.za

The Star