Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng
Internationally SA was a “discredited country”, and perceived as having a “Master’s in corruption”, but steps to improve the performance of the judiciary were gaining pace, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng told law students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard College campus yesterday.
He called on all those in the legal system to speak up when they came across corruption, saying only when there was a judicial system controlled by judicial officers would litigation processes meet credible performance standards.
The establishment of a performance monitor for the courts was still in progress, but the impact of the Judicial Educational Institute, which opened in January, was being felt in courtrooms, he said.
And the introduction of a judicial system of litigation, which saw the handing back of authority to judicial officers, was non-negotiable if cases were to be finalised speedily.
Cases would not be heard unless they were ready for trial despite their file dates, he added.
“In the Western Cape, the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, we have introduced this case management system and we have seen backlogs reduced. Obviously we now need to extend this to magistrate and district courts,” he said.
“One of the main complaints we get from the public is the underperformance of the courts. We can only have an effective judicial system if we make it our business to train judicial officers – even in the soft skills or in judgment writing, for example,” he said.
And, while he bemoaned the “yawning [transformation] gap” in the judicial system and the shortage of lecturers in universities, Justice Mogoeng said appointing people just “for the sake of it” was not workable.
“We must create a pool of competent women and black judges. We want people who are in touch with their communities and will make the courts accessible to everyone.”
Justice Mogoeng said legal jargon and a lack of education were keeping the courts from ordinary people and the most vulnerable, such as women and children.
