Over half of the one million cases that made it onto the rolls of South Africa's lower courts last year were withdrawn or struck off, the DA said during debate on the justice department budget vote last Tuesday.

DA justice spokeswoman Sheila Camerer told MPs drastic action was also needed to reduce growing case backlogs. Negative trends in South Africa's 2000-odd court rooms include steadily growing outstanding court rolls - some 210,000 cases in the lower courts, as well as increasing backlogs.

"This includes nearly 37,000 cases in the lower courts - that's cases over 12 months old - and 20,000 cases in the regional courts, where most serious violent crime is dealt with," she said.

Court sitting hours and case finalisation rates had dropped for three years in a row, and, generally, case cycle times had increased, in spite of the appointment of 260 court managers.

"Conviction rates and the rate of settlement of cases by plea bargaining are both down, according to the National Prosecuting Authority, and appeals often take five years to finalise - far too long.

"Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this poor performance is the large and increasing number of cases that make it to court, but then fall by the wayside. Camerer said that last year, some 590,000 of the million-odd cases enrolled in the lower courts fell by the wayside because of withdrawals, struck off the roll or non-appearance of the accused.

"The bottom line is the courts are not well run due to the large number of vacant posts in the department, as well as the mismanagement of the salaries of legal professionals within the department.”