Ja well, no fine - courts can’t cope

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Published May 13, 2015

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Cape Town - About 43 000 of the “worst” traffic offences - those who drive at more than 30km/h over the speed limit - are going unpunished because offenders know that Cape Town courts can’t cope with the huge number of cases on the court roll.

And while the city’s traffic service issues 1.3 million fines a year, “thousands” more cases are being thrown out of court because magistrates are unable to keep up with the caseload.

J P Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, told the safety and security portfolio committee last week that traffic offenders know that there’s a very small chance that they will be held accountable in court.

Smith said there was an 18-month backlog of traffic cases that still needed to be heard and if the 18-month time frame for cases to be heard, expired, cases were being scrapped.

“It is pointless to add more traffic officers,” said Smith. “First we need to resolve the bottlenecks.”

Smith said the city had been pushing for the past three years to get extra magistrates to lessen the case load.

While the justice department has provided three additional magistrates, Smith said this “did not even touch sides” when it came to easing the caseload.

Smith said traffic services were struggling to deal with transgressions on the dedicated bus lane on the N2 because the fines issued were seldom enforced.

Warrants of arrest for fines issued in February were only signed off four months later.

“A lot of people are getting away with traffic violations because the cases don’t get to court.”

Traffic cases are heard at municipal courts, which are managed by the provincial government.

‘WE NEED MORE COURTS’

Smith said the cap of 500 cases, imposed by the provincial justice department, was unrealistic. Carin Brynhard, chairwoman of the safety and security portfolio committee was concerned that the justice system appeared unable to cope.

“With a broken justice system, we can just as well close the doors.”

The Western Cape Justice Department had not responded to questions about the backlog of traffic offenses and the possibility of bringing in more than three extra magistrates at the time of going to press.

Brynhard was also alarmed by the “shocking” statistics of the abysmal prosecution rate at criminal courts in the province.

Advocate JC Gerber, of the provincial department of community safety, painted a bleak picture of police incompetence in his presentation on the “watching briefs” programme.

Launched by the department in 2012, this programme involves regular court attendance by trained officials to monitor the conduct and efficiency of the South African Police Service.

Gerber said of the 625 criminal cases monitored during the pilot period, 71 cases were scrapped from the court roll because of poor police performance. Of these, 44 percent were reinstated in the court rolls and in 28 of the cases the police officers were disciplined for their actions.

The findings, based on observations at only five courts in the province, pointed to a system that was “fundamentally broken”, said Smith.

“What we need is a commission of enquiry, like the Khayelitsha Commission, into these shocking statistics,” said Smith.

He said it was the poorer communities that suffered most. The conviction rate for gang-related cases was only about two percent, he said.

“The criminal justice system, starting with the police, is failing the public.”

DELAYS AND POSTPONEMENTS

Using the example of a murder case, Gerber explained how the accused made his first appearance in October 2013, only to have the matter remanded for bail information. The matter was delayed to allow for a formal bail application and then remanded again to December for further investigation.

The matter was remanded again when the post mortem was outstanding. In February 2014, the matter was postponed again because the docket was missing. A final remand was then granted to May. The court was informed again that the investigation was still ongoing, and the matter against the accused was withdrawn.

Gerber explained that the accused has a right to a speedy trial, and cases that were drawn out because of problems with dockets and the investigation usually end up being withdrawn. Of the 74 cases ruled out because of incomplete investigations, 12 were for charges of murder, 15 for the illegal use of firearms and 13 for aggravated robbery.

“These people are then released,” he said. “A lot of serious cases are removed from the roll and never come back.”

Gerber has only been able to monitor five courts, but there are plans to extend the programme to 25 courts. Councillor Gert Moolman said the problem had been “going on for years”.

However, Gerber said he found that the performance of the police was “much worse now than it was then”.

Cape Argus

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