Only three courts in the country have met their targets, as loadshedding has been blamed for the backlog in criminal court cases in South Africa.
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On Friday, the Judicial Annual Report (JAR) for 2021/22 was released, showing that criminal case backlogs in courts were at 49% of their target of 30%.
Only the Eastern Cape, Bhisho and the Western Cape High Courts were able to meet their target.
According to the report, the Western Cape High Court had a backlog of 21%, accounting for 13 criminal cases and 63 outstanding criminal cases.
The JAR stated that criminal matters being finalised in high courts showed a positive increase, where various divisions of the high court managed to finalise 9,853 criminal matters out of a total of 11,098 criminal matters – an achievement of 89%.
The annual target of 75% was exceeded by 14%.
A total of 5,067 of 5,266 matters had been finalised in the Western Cape high court, achieving 96%.
The JAR explained that its criminal case backlog “is ascribed to logistical challenges mainly due to the continuous load shedding, which had an adverse impact on the operations of the courts.”
“The annual target for all Superior Courts is set on 30% and mainly aims to ensure the finalisation of criminal matters within 12 months from the date of the accused’s first appearance in the High Court,” the report stated.
The number of outstanding criminal trials also showed an increase in comparison with the previous reporting period.
Meanwhile, speaking to IOL, anti-crime fighter Hanif Loonat said he was not convinced by the statistics as he slammed the findings of the report.
“It is a way of lying to your communities,” he said.
“The judiciary and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are a part of the problem of not (addressing) crime in its entirety.”
“I don’t believe that the judiciary and the NPA are winning, they are winning against the smaller fish.
“They should go after the bigger ones, who are with perfectionism looting our country and making our country a crime haven for foreigners.”
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Picture: Twitter