Minister’s briefing Minister Nqakula stated that he would not be going through the entire briefing, as the full text was available for perusal. The cluster would be reporting back on the work it reported to Cabinet earlier this year. He stated that his Department was currently defining the national security policy which would include the consultative conference in May 2005 which sought to include civil society and business. Cabinet would then be approached once the process was completed, so that it could be discussed in the July Lekgotla. The Minister of Intelligence would elaborate on this during his Budget debate on 17 May 2005.
Firearms amnesty would be coming to an end in June 2005. During the first period which ran from January to March 2005 a total of 71 900 firearms were collected, of which 12 592 were illegal, 25 487 were handed in by owners and 33 880 licenced firearms were surrendered. The country’s top 200 criminals had been arrested. The commandos were also being phased out. The commandos were units that belonged with the former South African National Defence Force (SANDF) which were responsible for crime combating and its prevention. Their skills would thus be transferred to the South African Police Services (SAPS). A new SAPS reservists system had been established which would accommodate those phased out commandos as well, and the target was to take up approximately 50 000 of those commandos. There were already between 200 and 800 of those individuals who wanted to join SAPS. The ultimate aim was for 100 000 to join SAPS, as they would be specifically deployed to the 169 priority areas identified.
Government planned to reduce the occurrence of serious and violent crimes by 7-10% over the next five years. In support of this SAPS’s presence would be increased in many areas, especially the priority areas, and over the next few weeks SAPS would be deploying a huge amount of the ex-commandos and reservists. This deployment would include regular police officers, members of the metro policy, the private security agencies as well as the SANDF. He requested the indulgence of members of the community during this process because it would no doubt cause them some inconvenience.
An analysis of the incidences of aggravated robberies, especially those that have been occurring at shopping centres, and members from the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit would be deployed to address the matter.
The transformation of the judiciary remained a priority. A draft programme that sought to fast-track the transformation process would be forwarded to Cabinet in August. A process was currently in place to develop that programme and many roleplayers were involved, including the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and the Magistrates Commission (MC).
The service charter for victims of crime was finalised and launched on 29 November 2004, with minimum standards in place. A steering committee was established to take this process forward. The Child Protection Unit was established as part of the Child Justice Bill process, and the Minister of Justice would provide more details on this during her Budget Speech.
The rehabilitation of inmates in the Department of Correctional Services remained a priority. The reality was that this did not occur as expected due to the problem with overcrowding in prisons, and for this reason the aim was to reduce the levels of overcrowding so that all the elements of the programme could be successful. The Department of Correctional Services had been understaffed for some time, and it had recruited 1000 officials, together with 2000 additional personnel.
The construction of the new correction centres had begun, and the two pilot projects would be used as test sites for the addition of new centres later this year. The sentences of prisoners who did not pose a serious threat to the community would be reviewed by the Minister of Correctional Services. They will be monitored and If they committed the slightest relapse they would be re-arrested. The mobile units were fully equipped to deal with this matter, within the jurisdiction of the Department of Home Affairs.
The National Immigration Branch (NIB) was launched on 12 April 2005 and it sought to transform immigration by facilitating all the work done by the Department of Home Affairs so as to encourage foreign direct investment. The new regime would create conditions for faster and better growth
The Immigration Regulations were published for public comment and would be submitted to Cabinet once finalised. The Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) was in its third phase, which was the development of the Smart ID Card. A total of 2,85 million fingerprints have been converted so far. A Refugee Smart ID Card was also being developed.
Questions and answers
Q: Could the country’s top 200 most wanted criminals be identified now that they had been arrested.
A: Minister Nqakula replied that government cannot name a person suspected of being a top criminal when the case was still being heard in a court of law, because it was not sure how that court case would be decided. If government identified a certain person as a top criminal and a court decided that the person was in fact not guilty, government would be liable to legal action. Furthermore it would also prejudice the cases against such persons. The courts must now determine the guilt or otherwise of such persons.
Q: There were approximately 6 draft pieces of legislation currently before Parliament regarding judicial matters, and asked whether government planned to change them or hold them back.
Q: The Minister was asked to explain what exactly was meant by a draft programme for transformation of the judiciary
A: Minister Nqakula responded to these two questions by stating that the intention was to create a system of justice that, in the first instance, was independent. Government had no intention at all to exercise control and command over the operational functions of the judiciary. Government was instead concerned with matters of policy and in this regard it would not yield any ground to anyone, because it related to government’s programme of democratic transformation. In dealing with such transformative issues government aimed to ensure that, amongst other things, the judiciary would be accessible to the ordinary people in all parts of South Africa. To this end government would then be placing legislation before Parliament for consideration, and it would also define the programmes that related not only to the Constitution but also to those pieces of legislation that would allow government ultimately to produce circumstances that would lead to the kind of judiciary he referred to. Government did not have a secret agenda here, as the process was open.
A: Ms C Gillwald, Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, added that a standard process was being followed which included input from the judiciary and the magistrates Commission with the aim to bringing about the representative social justice system envisaged by the Constitution. Mechanisms were constantly being adjusted to ensure that the process fitted into the Constitution framework and to update the standards of the judiciary all round. The Judicial College would provide the necessary training for judges, and would thus ensure their independence.
Q: The Minister was asked to report back on the two South Africans who were being held in a Pakistani jail for having connections with Al Quada.
A: Minister Nqakula responded that there were no two South Africans being detained in Pakistani jails. There was an incident a while ago regarding two South Africans who were detained, but they were released some time back.
Q: Minister Nqakula was asked to explain whether he referred solely to a legislative programme and nothing else, to fast-track the transformation of the judiciary.
Q: Minister Nqakula asked whether the statement by Ms Gilwald of a vision of a "social justice system envisaged by the Constitution" meant that judicial transformation would not involve any Constitutional amendment.
A: Ms Gillwald replied that it would involve many inputs, and whether there would be Constitutional amendments was not at all an objective of this process. Instead the process was unfolding "before their eyes". As she understood it the legislation was already before Parliament. The issue was that the Department of Justice had set this as a priority and it needed an entire relook of the system, including how the Justice Colleges were dealt with, how lateral entry could assist the establishment of a more diverse judiciary etc.
A: Minister Nqakula added that the Constitution was indeed the springboard for all this, and thus the Constitution would not be altered to meet the process being referred to.
Q: The Minister and Deputy Minister were asked to explain whether they foresaw a further constitutional amendment to fast-track the process.
A: Ms Gillwald responded that the process was already underway in Parliament and Parliament itself was thus currently deciding on how that legislation would be finalised. It would thus not be possible to indicate at this point whether constitutional amendments would be needed. The legislation was however only one part of the matter.
Q: The Minister and Deputy Minister were asked to explain whether legislation was needed over and above the existing 6 pieces of legislation. That was the question.
A: Ms Gillwald replied that new legislation would follow the usual process for legislation of its kind. There had been no need for additional legislation to date, but she could not speculate as to whether it could perhaps be needed in future.
A: Minister Nqakula added that it was not known what Cabinet itself could suggest in this regard, and speculation must be guarded against.
Q: Minister Nqakula referred earlier to a programme that would be submitted to Cabinet in August 2005 yet the Deputy Minister referred to matters that were already in the process, which implied that Cabinet already knew about these matters. The question then is what was being added to the process when the cluster would be reporting a programme to Cabinet in August.
A: Minister Nqakule responded that the cluster would be reporting to Cabinet in August in order to define the implementation of its programme of transformation. As he indicated earlier, this did not exclude the possibility of a legislative programme in future connected to this.
Q: The Deputy Minister was asked to explain lateral entry and lateral access.
A: Ms Gillwald responded that this was aimed at ensuring entry to the profession for more women and black professionals through avenues other than the bar. The reality was that through the acting judges programme, for instance, people built up temporary experience in that position and they became eligible to hold that post on a permanent basis. The rationale is thus that there should not be just one entry into the system. This had been the practice for some time already.
Q: The Deputy Minister was asked to explain further the other avenues of lateral entry into the profession.
A: Ms Gillwald replied that these included a consideration of the feasibility of graduation from magistracy into the judiciary, and whether career pathing would be provided. In the French dispensation for example people graduated from a Judges College to the judiciary as the chosen career path.
Q: Minister Nqakula was asked to indicate the progress made by the Commission that was currently looking into the future of the Scorpions.
A: Minister Nqakula replied that there was not much he could say be cause he assumed the Commission would be continuing its work and would report to the President upon completion.