South Africa: Over 260 Courtroom Judgments Excellent for Extra Than Six Months

It’s the highest variety of late judgments since GroundUp began reporting the difficulty

• 264 reserved judgments in South African courts have been excellent for longer than six months.
• The longest excellent judgment dates again to December 2012.
• The Johannesburg Labour Courtroom had essentially the most late judgments adopted by the Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg excessive courts.

Some 264 judgments have been excellent for at the least six months in courts throughout the nation – the best quantity since GroundUp started reporting on late judgments in 2017.

That is in response to the newest Reserved Judgment Report for the Chief Justice as of time period 2 of this yr, starting 10 April or 1 Might 2023 relying on the court docket. In complete, 1,284 judgments had been reserved.

The judicial norms and standards for each civil and prison issues is that judgments ought to usually not be reserved with out a fastened date for handing down. Nevertheless, as a substitute of delivering judgment instantly or quickly after a listening to or trial finishes, the court docket might determine to order judgment with out giving a date. The norms and requirements state that when that occurs each effort needs to be made at hand down judgments no later than three months after the final listening to.

GroundUp makes use of a extra lenient six-month benchmark earlier than concerning a reserved judgment as late. It seems the Workplace of the Chief Justice (OCJ) can also be utilizing the extra lenient six-month benchmark.

The most recent report reveals that on the time of publication, the Johannesburg Excessive Courtroom had the best variety of reserved judgments with a complete of 235. Of those, 19 have been excellent for greater than six months.

The Johannesburg Labour Courtroom had the best variety of late judgments with a complete of 42. The Pretoria Excessive Courtroom had the second-highest variety of late judgments with 37 excellent for greater than six months. The Pietermaritzburg Excessive Courtroom had 26 late judgments whereas the Cape City Labour Courtroom adopted intently behind with 23 late judgments.

Final Tuesday, we reported how the Constitutional Courtroom was setting a poor instance by failing to ship judgments timeously. It has 4 judgments excellent for greater than six months. Its website at the moment lists 19 circumstances awaiting judgment, although this won’t be correct.

A previous report by the OCJ confirmed that on the finish of December 2022, 181 judgments had been excellent for greater than six months. The variety of late judgments had elevated by 83 by 10 April 2023.

The judgments which have been excellent the longest date again to 12 December 2012 and 4 June 2013, each by Decide Anton van Zyl. Regardless of not handing down judgment in these issues, Decide van Zyl retired in August 2021. He has eight excellent late judgments. Van Zyl has been reported to the Judicial Conduct Committee for these excellent judgments.

Decide Cassim Sardiwalla of the Pretoria Excessive Courtroom, Appearing Decide Sean Snyman of the Johannesburg Labour Courtroom and Decide Robert Lagrange of the Cape City Labour Courtroom have 11 late judgments every – the best in response to the report. Lagrange is chargeable for almost half of the late judgments on the Cape City Labour Courtroom.

Appearing Decide Nontuthuzelo Mabenge has eight late judgments on the Gqeberha Labour Courtroom. The Thohoyandou Excessive Courtroom in Limpopo solely has two late judgments, each from Decide Nare Frans Kgomo and each excellent for over three years.

In the meantime, the Gqeberha Excessive Courtroom, Polokwane Excessive Courtroom and Land Claims Courtroom had no late judgments. Each the Competitors Courtroom of Attraction and Electoral Courtroom had no reserved judgments.

However the late judgment recording system is an “honour” one; it relies on judges reporting their reserved judgments to their courts. So the determine of 264 is probably going an underestimate.