Durban - A dire shortage of prosecutors and judges in KwaZulu-Natal is hampering the conclusion of cases, including state corruption matters, prompting the provincial government to consider asking President Jacob Zuma to intervene.
Premier Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday he would once again approach Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to seek a solution to the crisis, and if need be, he would take up the matter with the president.
Speaking at the provincial legislature, Mkhize said he had previously brought up the matter with the minister.
“In response the minister (Radebe) indicated that he believes there are adequate prosecutors (in KZN).”
But the premier said that in further consultation with the KZN judiciary, it had become clear to him that when compared to other provinces KZN had a shortage of judges.
“For a population of 10.2 million, we have only 27 judges. Gauteng has 79 judges for 12.2 million people while the Western Cape has 34 judges for 5.8 million people,” he said.
The 27 permanent judges in KZN are spread between the Durban and Pietermaritzburg high courts and the circuit courts across the province.
KZN Judge President Chiman Patel confirmed the figures presented by the premier, but said he could not comment any further on the matter.
Mkhize, who was delivering his office’s budget, said it was obvious that there was a need for more prosecutors and judges.
However, it was unclear whether there were any unfilled posts or whether the province would be seeking to create new posts. Asked about this, Mkhize said he did not want to speculate.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokeswoman, Bulelwa Makeke, said the issue of the shortage of prosecutors had been brought before Parliament.
She then referred the Daily News to documents submitted before Parliament in April in which the NPA said that, because of budget cuts, it was unable to fill vacancies and had suspended its trainee prosecutor programme.
“The end envisaged result is that the people of South Africa will suffer as service delivery to the vulnerable groups is impeded,” the NPA stated in its annual performance plan for the 2013/14 financial year.
Mkhize expressed concern at the backlog of cases “involving billions of rand”, saying his government would like to see more criminals behind bars and the stolen loot being returned to the public purse.
“As the provincial government we have invested much financial and personnel resource to strengthen our capacity to detect underhand activities in our operation,” he said.
So far, his office has been asked to investigate 172 cases of corruption involving R1.6 billion. Of these, 91 investigations are still under way while 81 cases have been finalised. Of those cases finalised, 48 have been referred to the police for investigation, but of the 48 cases, seven did not proceed because of a number of factors, including death of suspects and insufficient evidence.
Mkhize said that from April last year to March this year, the SAPS Commercial Crimes Unit had investigated 433 cases of fraud, resulting in 431 people being convicted and sentenced.
From April 2011 to March last year the unit had received 594 dockets resulting in 529 convictions.
Daily News