Litigants in the Pretoria and Johannesburg High Courts now have to wait 20 months for a trial date and could wait a further three years for a judgment.
As the Judicial Services Commission sat this week in Cape Town, it was regaled with tales of the many woes of the judges in these divisions.
The judges, it heard, were working as hard as was humanly possible for them to work.
Most of them said the work was overwhelming.
In one case, a judge even threatened to hold the next person inquiring when he would be giving a judgment in contempt.
Members of the JSC and candidates appearing before them were, however, divided on how to fix a system that cannot promise that justice will be swift.
Some said more judges must be appointed.
Others said that what the courts needed were judges with greater practical legal experience.
Questions focused more on diversity training for judges than on transformation.
Eventually it was up to Judge Azhar Cachalia, a candidate for a position on the Supreme Court of Appeal bench and a judge at the Johannesburg High Court, to say it: "I am seeing more and more judgments which have been surprisingly shocking.
" the kind of mistakes that should not be tolerated.
Attorneys further said this week that the slow pace of justice in South African courts was having the effect of breaking their clients down to a point where they agree to settle matters to their detriment.
It was during the interview of Judge Nkola John Motata that the members of the JSC got the chance to ask some questions about the length of time it takes for some judges to produce a judgment.
Judge Motata - who had given some of his judgments between 11 and 15 months after finalising the trial - admitted that he was often confronted with types of work that he had never had to deal with when he practised.
Judge Peter Combrinck - a man who had been practising law for 49 years in South Africa - told the JSC that he never reserves judgments without indicating the date on which he would hand it down.
He also said that he found that the practice of some judges of reserving judgment for months on end to be completely unacceptable.
However he was not entirely without sympathy for the young judges. "It is difficult for a person who has no experience to do the work. That in itself creates a lot of pressure.
"It is unacceptable for people to sit on their judgments.
"Litigants have paid good money (to come to court) and often their livelihood depends on it."