magistrates also concerned about salary increases
25 June 2007
Concerns about salary increases raised by judges also applies to magistrates, whose judicial functions and responsibilities are ‘virtually identical’, differing only with respect to jurisdiction, says the Judicial Officers' Association of SA (Joasa).
Judges are unhappy with a proposed 17% pay rise, saying that as Chief Justice Pius Langa was due to receive a 65% increase the huge disparities in salaries were divisive.
Joasa president Judy van Schalkwyk is quoted in a Mail & Guardian Online report as saying that ‘more than 90% of court cases were dealt with in the lower courts’, meaning that most of the public's first experience of justice was as it was applied by magistrates. She said that the Independent Remuneration Commission (IRC), which determines salary scales for public office bearers such as judges, magistrates, politicians and traditional healers, had deviated from its finding that salary gaps between judicial officers have to be narrowed.
Van Schalkwyk said the gap between the highest-paid magistrate and the chief justice was about R1m. ‘Joasa supports the idea of raising the salary of the Chief Justice so as to attract top candidates to the High Court Bench,’ she said. ‘However, the salary of the whole hierarchy has to be adjusted accordingly, merging the gaps between them, since top candidates are also sought on the lower court Bench.
This would also stop the great number of magistrates leaving the Bench attracted into the corporate world by good salaries.’
Full Mail & Guardian Online report: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?