creating a single judiciary?
18 September 2007

The time had come to stop seeing magistrates as separate from the judiciary, Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development, Brigitte Mabandla said. The conference marked the first time that magistrates had gathered together in such big numbers, over 500, to discuss the way forward for themselves in a new regime.

The legal minds were also joined by other high profile local, regional and international delegates.Minister Mabandla said creating a single judiciary was a “massive transformational trajectory” which would take time to evolve, but which was evolving. “We are in the process, and have been for a while, of defining a single judiciary and looking at ways of strengthening the independence of the magistracy. This is very important as so many scenarios exist for a single judiciary.”

When Dullah Omar was Minister for Justice he started a process of defining magistrates in South Africa as being truly part of the judiciary. This transformational process has been strengthening over time. “We should not forget that before 1993 the magistracy was still part of the civil service. The process of separating the magistracy from the Executive effectively started from 1994,” said Minister Mabandla.

The Minister urged Magistrates to engage in debate around the bills. A policy document would also be released this year on transformation of the judiciary as well as a document on transformation of the legal sector - all which will have huge impact on the stakeholders, she said. The magistracy needed to engage on the issues.

The issue of traditional leaders was also an important issue that came up for discussion, Minister Mabandla said. “We need to acknowledge that traditional leaders exist, that they have a role to play in resolution of certain prescribed minor disputes and we must mainstream them.“We need to start the process to create synergies between traditional leaders and the magistracy.”

Chief Justice Pius Langa took note of this and said steps were being taken to concretise a single judiciary with heads of the courts considering a system of collaboration between the high courts and the lower courts.Deputy Minister Johnny de Lange took a strong stance against some of the debate at the conference which he said seemed to be driven by ‘self-interest’. “It’s our duty to take the debate to another level and the one thing we need to change is the element of self-interest that is coming through. “We can’t participate in an institution for our nation driven by what’s best for ourselves as individuals.”
The conference also discussed harmonising the work of the Judicial Service Commission and that of the Magistrates Commission which provides separate mechanisms for the appointment of magistrates and judges. The possibility of a single commission was discussed.

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