Chantelle Benjamin
18 August 2008
Johannesburg — A REVIEW of the criminal justice system, the result of collaboration between President Thabo Mbeki's office and the Big Business Working Group, shows that despite assurances that it is working to reduce crime, the system is in fact slowly grinding to a halt, with staff shortages, a lack of accountability and no common vision across the cluster.
The outcome of the review prompted calls last week from the Democratic Alliance (DA) for Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to resign, arguing that his failure to take proper action on issues that have been prevalent for years reveals his unsuitability to hold office.
Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA spokeswoman on safety and security, says assurances from Nqakula that statistics are being monitored had been brought into question after the review disclosed that a lack of data tracking crime from commission to outcome made it difficult to assess the success of the cluster.
Deputy Justice Minister Johnny De Lange, appointed in May by Mbeki to lead the review, is likely to disagree .
His view is that the entire criminal justice system (CJS) -- consisting of the judiciary, police, prosecutors, correctional services and the Legal Aid Board -- is not working in its present state.
His presentation on the review to the justice and safety and security portfolio committees in Parliament earlier this month raised eyebrows at his frank description of the CJS cluster as "fragmented, unfocused and dysfunctional".
De Lange later told the media that while he would not say the system was in crisis, it could not continue to function as it was indefinitely. He also said a review of other countries' systems showed these problems were not unique to SA.
The review showed a large proportion of the 2-million crimes reported annually are never solved, and that even if perpetrators were found, a "substantial" number of cases were withdrawn as they did not establish a prima facie case. Nearly half of crime scenes are never visited.
The reason is a serious shortage of crime scene experts, forensic experts and qualified detectives.
A breakdown of the cluster gives an indication of the seriousness of the vacancy problem.
SA in 2007- 08 reported 18487 murders, 18795 attempted murders, 118312 incidents of aggravated robbery and 210104 incidents of assault and grievous bodily harm.
The police, who are expected to prevent and manage crime and testify in court, have 1178 vacancies and only 15% of staff are detectives who have to conduct investigations, when the figure should be closer to a third of the force.
There are only 2082 crime scene experts countrywide, which means each expert would have to visit at least three crime scenes a day, and 1033 forensic experts to analyse data taken from crime scenes.
The task groups for investigat ing the cluster concluded that "cases will continue to not be detected or to be withdrawn in large numbers before and after reaching courts, if policies and resource allocation is not radically changed to a singleminded focus on creating the necessary capacity to detect criminals and gather credible evidence to ensure convictions in courts".
The study also found that of the small percentage of cases that do make it to court, more than 700000 are thrown out or withdrawn, and that in regional courts, only six cases a month are being finalised. In both regional and district courts there are 17% vacancies, which means in some cases there is one prosecutor per court, which accounts for the 35% growing backlog in contact crime cases and explains the 48000 awaiting-trial prisoners clogging South African courts.
The report also found that the inefficiencies of the CJS cluster extended across all departments and agencies because of high levels of fragmentation, many blockages and obstacles, high levels of unaccountability, disparate legislative and policy frameworks and mandates, and crucial gaps in policies and legislation which led to gaps in accountability.
A seven-point plan approved by the government includes adopting a single vision and mission across the cluster, and the appointment of a minister or deputy minister to head a CJS structure which co-ordinates and manages functions, not only at national, but at provincial and local levels as well.
The minister will be supported by an advisory board consisting of the main roleplayers in the CJS, law enforcement agencies, and relevant ministers, deputy ministers and senior government officials.
A single IT system is designed to make monitoring of progress and cases easier and more efficient, and discussions are under way to consider a single budget across the sector.
The review also looks at alternatives to imprisonment and admission of guilt solutions for crimes such as minor assault to free up courts and prisons, as well as improved prison rehabilitation programmes, and release programmes to lower the 60% re-offender rate.
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It is nice to know that someone is concerned about the problem.