government, businesses have new anticrime strategy
9 November 2007

In a major admission that the government is not coping with SA’s rampant crime rate, the cabinet has approved a major turnaround strategy to revamp the criminal justice system after accepting that parts of it were “disfunctional”.

A key element of the plan is for a “champion of the criminal justice system” to be established, probably at ministerial level, who will head up a council of all the relevant security departments in order to address practical matters in the criminal justice system.

The approval comes after reports in Parliament identified that 70% of all cases enrolled in the courts fall off the roll as a result of shoddy investigations, lack of evidence or lost dockets.  Another report has shown that the secretariat for safety and security is in a shambles and barely has enough money to pay salaries, let alone exercise civilian oversight of the police.

Deputy Justice Minister Johnny de Lange, who made the presentation to the cabinet on Wednesday, told reporters yesterday the strategy recognised that there were difficulties in the system and rather than “tinkering” with them proposed “fundamental changes” with “huge financial and organisational implications”.

In response to a question about how the plan would be funded, given the modest increases in the medium-term expenditure framework, De Lange and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla said there would be a special budgetary dispensation for it. De Lange said President Thabo Mbeki had said the money had to be found.  De Lange said the first fundamental change would be the appointment of someone from the executive to head the co-ordinating function to mitigate the “silos” within the system.

This is a clear recognition that there is no overall management and co-ordination in the criminal justice system as a whole. It is one of the issues identified in talks between government and Mbeki’s big business working group, which has promoted this review.  “We work against each other in the system,” De Lange said, adding that there were also huge problems in the way courts worked. Another objective would be the retention of skills, such as detectives and crime scene investigators, and the training of new officers in those skills.

Chief government spokesman Themba Maseko said the weaknesses that had been identified were in all aspects of the system and included forensic investigations, a shortage of detectives, a slow rate of investigation and a poor conviction rate.   Maseko said a task team made up of all the key role players would be set up immediately to start developing an implementation plan. He said a report would be tabled and finalised at the cabinet lekgotla in January and formally announced during the state of the nation address.

Wyndham Hartley, www.businessday.co.za