Despite most of SA’s courts achieving their performance targets in their most recent year under review, the Constitutional Court finalised only about half of its cases. But chief justice Raymond Zondo stressed the courts had “performed excellently”.
Zondo addressed a packed Constitutional Court on Friday — Annual Judiciary Day — after the release the Annual Judiciary Report for the 2022/23 financial year. This is an extensive account of all courts in SA over a financial year.
He affirmed to the audience, which included justice minister Thembi Simelane and her deputy, Andries Nel, “we tell you where we have not performed”.
According to the report, courts set specific goals for themselves based on data from the previous year. For example, the Constitutional Court set itself a goal of finalising 70% of the matters before it in the 2022/23 period, but finalised only 55% of these, or 263 of 481 matters. During the previous period, it managed to finalise 70% of the 554 matters before it.
Other higher courts were more successful. The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) aimed to finalise 80% of the 239 appeals and managed 85%. The embattled labour court met its target to finalise 58% of the 3,512 cases before it. The court set itself a lower target because of its challenges, including a lack of resources such as permanent judges and staff.
The ordinary high courts collectively managed to finalise 85% of the civil matters before them, exceeding the goal of 64%.
Zondo stressed the judiciary required complete independence. Its budgetary and other concerns were controlled, often “unilaterally”, by the justice department. For example, hiring new staff, opening new courts or hiring more judges had first to be approved by the justice department. He said this infringed on the judiciary’s independence.
Discussions to separate the judiciary from the department had stalled under former justice minister Ronald Lamola, but Zondo hoped the new minister would be more open.
Simelane said she “warmly welcome[d]” the report. “The judiciary report will significantly enhance transparency, accountability and public confidence in the judiciary,” she said in a statement on Friday.
The report notes the two biggest outliers were the Constitutional Court’s lower performance and criminal backlogs at all courts. Collectively, the criminal courts reduced the backlog of open cases to 47%, rather than the goal of 30%.
Gauteng judge president Dunstan Mlambo told the media that a major problem with criminal cases was they involved “lots of people” and could be complex.
Despite the judiciary’s overall positive performance, Zondo acknowledged that the Constitutional Court had to improve. Apex court matters required the input of 11 judges and “all must apply their mind”, he said. Therefore, it took longer to decide on matters than other courts.
Zondo also said he was pushing for reform regarding complaints against judges. This year saw the first impeachments of judges in modern SA history: John Hlophe, who was the judge president of the Western Cape High Court, and Nkola Motata, from Gauteng. Both cases took almost 20 years to finalise.
Zondo noted he and his colleagues were hoping to reform the complaint mechanism in the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which he heads as chief justice. He was, for example, seeking a change with the co-operation of the justice minister that would allow him to hire up to 50 judges to handle complaints rather than the seven he was allowed now.
It was Zondo’s final Annual Judicial Report ahead of his retirement at the end of August.
The night before, the presidency announced deputy chief justice Mandisa Maya would be taking over from Zondo. Zondo’s official farewell will be in August, when he hands the reins to Maya, who will be the first female head of the SA judiciary.
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