Cape Town – Work on the establishment of 80 sexual offences courts (SCOs) across the country as part of the fight against gender-based violence is at an advanced stage.
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said the draft gazette notice for the designation of sexual offences courts had been vetted by the office of the Chief State Law Advisor and was awaiting his approval.
“The SOCs will be established as soon as the gazette notice is published, as required by the Act,” Lamola said.
He was responding to parliamentary questions form DA MP Werner Horn, who asked what progress had been made to designate and establish 80 sexual offence courts.
In terms of the law, the minister is required to designate any division of the high court or any magistrate’s court where the sexual offences courts should be established in consultation with the chief justice and the national director of public prosecutors.
In his written response, Lamola said the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development planned to establish 80 sexual offences courts in terms of Section 55A of the Criminal Law in this financial year.
He said Free State would have 17 SOCs, 12 in Gauteng and Western Cape, 11 in Northern Cape, eight in KwaZulu-Natal, seven in Mpumalanga and Northern West, five in Limpopo and three in the Eastern Cape.
Lamola said he had received a letter of concurrence from Chief Justice Raymond Zondo for the designation of nine courts for the regional divisions where the 80 sexual offences courts would be established.
He said that National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi had also responded in writing to his letter in support of the designation process.
The minister said the national guidelines for the establishment of the Sexual Offences Courts were developed with the judiciary, the National Prosecuting Authority, Legal Aid South Africa, and civil society organisations.
The guidelines include a checklist to verify resource compliance with the regulations relating to Sexual Offences Courts.
“The provincial heads have submitted signed checklists for the resourcing of each court falling under their respective provinces,” Lamola said.
Last December, he said the department had already resourced 40 of the 100 courts, in line with the regulations relating to sexual offences courts, which encapsulated the catalogue of victim support services meant to eradicate secondary victimisation from the court system.
“I might, at this point, also indicate this service catalogue has been improved further to offer special services for persons with disabilities and older persons, which include ad hoc sign language interpretation, a safe place at the court for guide dogs, disability-accessible information material, as well as court accompaniment services volunteered by court supporters drawn from the civil society organisations,” he said at the time.