Chief Justice Zondo delivered the 2022/2023 Annual Judiciary Report on Friday, 26 July 2024. During the period 2022/2023, there were 33 vacancies in the Superior Courts and the Judicial Services Commission ("JSC") advised the President to appoint 25 candidates. The President, in turn, made 24 judicial appointments. The vacancy for the Judge President of the Limpopo Division of the High Court was not filled due to litigation regarding the JSC's recommendation.
The Chief Justice acknowledged that the Judicial Conduct Committee ("JCC") – which is the body that deals with complaints about misconduct against judges – has been criticised for taking too long to dispose of some complaints lodged with it. The Chief Justice stated that the reason for the delays arises from the fact that legislation limits members of the JCC to 7, some of who are judges in active service and carry caseloads in the respective courts in which they serve. In order to address the issue relating to the long delays in dealing with complaints against judges, the Chief Justice has proposed to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services ("the Minister") that section 8 of the JSC Act be amended to provide for the appointment of additional members to the JCC. If this proposal is accepted by the Minister and the JSC Act is amended, as many as 50 judges could be appointed as additional members of the JCC, to whom complaints and appeals could be allocated.
For the period under review, the Superior Courts have achieved 11 of the 13 Performance Targets that were set in the 2020/2021 Annual Review. The 2 targets that were not met are as follows:
- The 70% target for the finalization of Constitutional Court matters (with only 55% of Constitutional Court matters being finalised); and
- The percentage by which criminal case backlogs were reduced in all High Court divisions (the 47% reduction that was achieved fell short of the target of 30%).
Constitutional Court's performance
The total number of matters dealt with by the Constitutional Court in the period under review decreased by 13%, from 554 matters during 2021/2022 to 481 matters in 2022/2023. The total number of matters in the Constitutional Court decreased by 32%, from 389 matters during 2021/2022 to 263 matters during 2022/2023.
Supreme Court of Appeal's ("SCA") performance
In the period under review, the Supreme Court of Appeal finalised 85% of the 239 appeal matters against a target of 80%. The percentage of applications (petitions) finalised was 91% against a target of 80%, marking this period of review as a clear over-achievement by the SCA.
Labour Appeal Court's ("LAC's") performance
In the period under review, the LAC finalised 96% of appeals against a target of 80%. In addition, the LAC finalised 100% of petitions to it against a target of 90%, marking a very encouraging performance as well.
Labour Court's performance
The Labour Court achieved its target by finalising 58% of its cases. In the period under review, approximately 18% less Labour Court matters were enrolled and approximately 21% less matters were finalised, compared to the review of 2021/2022.
Land Claims Court performance
The Land Claims Court finalised 72% of matters in the period under review against a target of 60%. This was considerably better than the Land Claims Court's performance in the review during 2021/2022.
Electoral Court's performance
The Electoral Court finalised all the matters referred to it against a target of 90%.
Competition Appeal Court's performance
The Competition Appeal Court finalised 88% of its matters against a target of 85%, marking a considerably better performance than in the 2021/2022 review.
High Courts' performance
The various divisions of the High Court managed to finalise 9 715 out of 11 765 criminal matters (83% which exceeded the annual target of 75%). There was an approximately 6% increase in the total number of criminal matters (11 765 compared to the 11 098 reported in the 2021/2022 Annual Review). The Mthatha, Gqeberha, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban, Thohayndou, Mombela, Middleburg and Kimberley High Courts did not achieve the target of 75% that had been set for the High Courts for the finalisation of criminal matters, and it seems that logistical challenges (including load shedding) and the complex nature of some of the criminal matters (with some matters having multiple accused persons) contributed to some of the High Courts not achieving the targets set for them. The Gauteng Division of the High Court only managed to finalized 57% of its criminal matters and this may point towards the severe shortage of available judges in the Gauteng High Court.
Encouragingly, all of the High Courts managed to surpass the 64% target that was set for the finalisation of civil matters. The High Courts finalised 94 347 civil matters against a total of 110 387 civil matters (85%).
Whilst the Judiciary remains committed to the reduction and elimination of case backlogs in our courts, this remains a challenge.
Reserved judgments
The Constitutional Court delivered 18% of its judgments within the period under review, while 82% was delivered after 3 months of the hearing. The Constitutional Court still needs to deliver about 39 reserved judgments.
The SCA is a stellar performer when it comes to delivering reserved judgments with 80% of its judgments delivered within 3 months, and only 20% delivered after 3 months. The SCA still has to deliver 15 judgments that were reserved in the period under review.
The LAC's performance when it comes to the delivery of reserved judgments was also commendable. It delivered 76% of reserved judgments within 3 months and 24% after 3 months. The LAC still needs to deliver about 14 reserved judgments in the period under review.
The Competitional Appeal Court delivered 79% of its judgments within 3 months and 21% after 3 months. There are still 19 Competition Appeal Court judgments that need to be delivered in the period under review.
Save for the Gauteng High Court, the Labour Courts had the most number of reserved judgments. 67% were delivered within 3 months and 33% were delivered after 3 months. The Labour Courts still need to deliver 228 reserved judgments in the period under review.
The Land Claims Court delivered 70% of its judgments within 3 months and 30% after 3 months. In the period under review, the Land Claims Court still needs to deliver 7 reserved judgments.
The Gauteng High Court had 1724 reserved judgments in the period of review. 72% of this was delivered within 3 months and 28% after 3 months. There are still 133 reserved judgments in the period under review which need to be delivered.
Besides the Constitutional Court, the Labour Court and the Mpumalanga and North-West divisions of the High Court reached the target of 70% set for the delivery of judgments within 3 months. The Norms and Standards for the exercise of judicial functions continue to stipulate that generally when a judgment is reserved, a fixed date for the handing down of the judgment should be set and a judgment should not be reserved for longer than 3 months.
The Annual Report also identifies that additional regional courts are needed to deal with the increasing workload and to improve the finalisation of regional court cases.
The Report identifies that the unavailability of stakeholders and court rooms, defective recording equipment, loadshedding, natural disasters and bad/adverse weather conditions are the primary reasons for case flow blockages.
It is encouraging to see that the Judiciary considers itself to be accountable, sets targets and then measures the achievement of those targets. Given that Judge Zondo is set to retire, this was his last Annual Report and the next Report will be delivered by the Honourable Justice Maya.
It is also encouraging to see that the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has committed to rolling out fibre-connections to ensure stability on the ICT systems and there are plans to improve new data capturing and to ensure that all statistics from 1 April 2023 to date are complete and effectively maintained.
The South African Judicial Education Institute, which was established in 2008, was very active in the period under review and conducted over 136 courses.
In the period of review:
- The JSC nominated four persons for appointment to the Constitutional Court, but the President has only appointed one such person. Hopefully, we will see more appointments to the Constitutional Court in the next reporting period.
- Approximately 42% of new judges appointed were African, 4% were Indian, 4% were Coloured, and 50% were White.
- Approximately 54% of new Magistrates appointed were African, 8% were Indian, 14% were Coloured, and 23% were White.
- Currently, approximately 48% of all judges are African, 12% are Indian, 9% are Coloured, and 30% are White.
The report also notes that an overwhelming majority of judges have disclosed their registerable interest within 30 days of their appointment.
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