Justice and Constitutional Development Budget Vote Declaration: ACDP

Friday, June 21, 2002

Steve Swart MP – ACDP

In Parliament yesterday African Christian Democratic Party MP Mr Steve Swart gave the following speech registering the ACDP’s vote in support of the Justice and Constitutional Development Budget:

Madame Speaker, Justice requires that society deals seriously and firmly with crime, recognising that it is as much an offence against persons as it is against the state. It is as much a violation of the victim as it is a violation of the law.

Whilst the ACDP has commended the DG and his team for a vastly improved financial report, clearly there is still much room for improvement, as well as for additional funds. The Chief Financial Officer, Mr Mackenzie[1], has stated that “the MTEF allocations reflect a scarcity of funding and better management of available funding is thus critical.” Whilst the department has not yet arrived, it has made tremendous strides in stabilizing and controlling its expenditure.

Of greater concern is the admission by the CFO, referred to during the budget vote debate, that “the legacy systems and processes are not coping and in the case of the deposit account, where monies in trust are administered on behalf of the public, contingent losses have been acknowledged as non-quantifiable.” If the contingent losses are non-quantifiable, how will one begin to determine the amount that has been lost due to fraud, theft and corruption. It seems to be a case of “getting closer to knowing what we do not know”. Whilst I fully appreciate that many of the systems were inherited, the CFO’s statement that “taken as a whole, the management of the deposit account has collapsed” is a very serious admission.

The ACDP trusts that the steps initiated by the department will address this situation, as far as this is possible.

The deplorable condition of many of the magistrates courts in particularly the former homelands and townships is obviously a matter of concern and will require major capital expenditure in many cases. This issue was highlighted by the Chief Justice in a recent submission to the Portfolio Committee.

Inasmuch as human resources are concerned, the CFO has further stated that, “whilst across-the-board pockets of excellence exist, fundamental problems still remain.” However, it would be remiss of us to forget the loyal dedication of departmental staff, judiciary and prosecutors in addressing court backlogs by means of Saturday and additional Courts is laudable –without these courts, the backlog would be much more severe.

We commend the NPA on its work as well as on the finding of the Institute of Security Studies which had found a “surprisingly positive” attitude towards the prosecuting Authority among those with experience in South African courts.

The salary disparities between various state lawyers with the same experience must be addressed. In this regard I am referring to magistrates, prosecutors, state attorneys, and state legal advisers, many of whom are on different salary levels whilst having the same experience.

In conclusion, the ACDP will support this budget vote.

I thank you.


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For further comment please call Steve Swart MP at 083 285 6290 or ACDP Media Liaison Liza Bloemetje at 082 478 1037




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[1] All quotes are from the PEP Report of the CFO for the year to 31 March 2001 submitted to the Justice Committee.