Criminal Justice Reform, Transition and Crime
by
Leonard Ramatlakane
Leonard Ramatlakane is Minister of Community Safety.
Let me first all acknowledge you the Session Chairperson
The Convenors of this conference
Leading legal professionals present here
Academics
Invited Guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Later this week on Friday, President Thabo Mbeki will bring down the curtain on our 10-year celebrations of this country since we declared it a democracy in 1994.
It will be a momentous occasion which to many of us will remind us about the introspection which all of us, have to do on where we are and where we are going in all facets of government.
One such introspection, in my mind is this august gathering here. This is a gathering of legal gurus and experts in the legal framework of our country.
It is important however to document that, ten years ago (in fact eleven years this year), this country's justice system has been one that was designed to entrench the government of that era.
We are coming off a justice system that was characterised by elements of oppression and racial discrimination.
As we began the road to democracy in 1994, there was no choice but to turn around the Criminal Justice system of this country.
What was being done then was to put the final nail in the coffin of apartheid institutions and create new ones, which today are responsible for the defence of human rights and democracy.
That challenge had to do with the establishment of institutions that would best serve the needs of the millions of South Africans who in the past had been denied access to these institutions.
Coupled to this task, was also to reform the Criminal Justice system in its entirety.
Have we been successful in achieving that is the question posed to us today here.
Chairperson, ten or eleven years on since the 1994 democratic breakthrough, our country is still grappling with the challenges of crime. These challenges requires strong partnership with civil society structures and bodies.
The Government 10 years review conclude that much has been achieved but much more still need to be done including issues of crime and development and to neutralise crime.
This is not a unique situation. Everywhere in the world, in developed countries, in socialist countries too, crime is still a major obstacle to the progress of those countries.
Last year, my Department held a similar conference where we brought together experts from the Criminal Justice institutions.
That three day conference, heard experiences from as far as Italy, on how crimes of all kind be it trans-national, crime of trading with humans to financial crime. All of these were at the top of the agenda of governments, in their efforts to protect their citizens.
That conference noted and resolved some of the following:
Numerous gains in institutional integration and co-ordination have given effect to improved service delivery.
That the security cluster has made significant progress in bringing about peace and stability by way of effective management of our national crime prevention strategy, which has fostered greater co operation amongst the security cluster departments;
That the Prosecuting Authority has been restructured and consolidated into a single national structure headed by the National Directorate of Public Prosecution,
And that Social mobilisation against crime and how to make the community policing forums more effective and reflective of the entire Integrated Criminal Justice system remain an imperative.
These are but just some of the key aspects that we noted and adopted at the conference with the theme: "Criminal Justice and Democracy – 10 years of Learning and Challenges"
(NB: There are books still available from the Department on the outcome of the conference)
Ladies and gentlemen, your conference here therefore is dealing with a noble and an imperative question.
In the last ten years, our government has done a great deal in pushing forward programmes that were aimed at changing the face of governance for our people.
Criminal Justice too, has become an integral part of the roll out programme that our government put in place when it came in, in 1994.
When we look at our Judiciary, we must applaud to see that today, we have a single judiciary headed by the Constitutional court. We now have moved from having a black judge but we also have women black judges.
Having established these institutions, our government took a giant step constitutionally and cemented independency of Judiciary.
Our bench is becoming more and more representative of the racial demographics of our country.
I am of the view that I have witnessed a great deal of change in our system and it is my view that there is still more to be done to transform the face of our Criminal justice.
This change will have to be felt by the man and woman in the street, who constantly would tell us stories of how harsh the system has been to them, even if they have been at the receiving end of crime.
Today we hear harsh stories of a perpetrator of crime that he committed in a neighbourhood, is released hours later, after having committed a barbaric crime.
How to deal with these situations and to be able to convince those angry communities, is one way that I think, our system will need to seriously look at.
After all this is about service delivery- and if such a service is now being given to the community, surely there is bound to be a negative reception of our officers in the criminal justice system.
Mr Chair, creating democratic criminal justice structure is one thing but to ensure that those structures actually become agents and institutions that our people can access, is another thing that's highly imperative to the former.
In the last ten years, we adopted the most envied Constitutions in the world.
Our Constitution enabled us to establish democratic structures that have made it possible for the smooth conveyance of the messages of our government.
At that conference "Criminal Justice and Democracy: 10 years of Learning and Challenges, one of our speakers, Justice Yvonne Mokgoro said the following:
10 years of democracy and a supreme constitution has provided us with an abundance of opportunity to eradicate a system of human rights abuse and to begin to create a new culture of human rights (Justice Y Mokgoro; 15-18 March 2004- Criminal Justice and Democracy: 10 years of Learning and Challenges)
Justice Mokgoro concluded and said:
We have to be as creative as possible and develop methods, strategies and programmes of action that will guarantee successful operations, as long as they are not contrary to the provisions of our Constitution
Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, it is against this background, that I speak to you this morning, expressing my confidence in saying that our country has achieved so much in changing and transforming the various systems of governance, including the Criminal Justice system.
That programme of transforming these institutions is not complete as yet. There are still great deals that need to be changed.
It is for those reasons, that I agree with Justice Mokgoro that, those challenges that are still there, will require a great deal of creativity and strategic planning when tackling them.
Our road to the next decade is one that will require that level of creativity. I say this because our people out there, are now waiting on how we speed up the process of service delivery in all walks of life.
Our Criminal Justice therefore has a role to play here.
Our police will need to start inculcating a new culture of being men and women in blue who are agents and active participants for change and service delivery.
Together with our communities, we believe that our policemen and women can forge a useful partnership in the fight against crime.
This route is proving to be a success in the Western Cape because it is working. Our people have active volunteers in assisting the police to fight crime.
We believe it can become a successful model that could be used countrywide.
Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, let me say that your conference here is of historic importance in the legal and criminal justice system calendar of this country.
I am of the hope that in here we have brought together men and women who will vigorously debate these matters and upon huge and intense disagreement, you will all come out having agreed eventually, because what you will be deliberating on will be of huge benefit to the country.
Let me leave you with a few thoughts towards your conference:
Building on the successes and leanings of the past ten years, we should go a long way in realising our vision of justice in our society so that our people can live in conditions of freedom and security.
As we go to the next decade, the following questions come to mind:
- Are we contributing to the freedom and security of the South African community;
- Are we contributing to the reduction of crime;
- Are we enhancing the public confidence in the criminal justice system;
- Are we providing enhanced access to NPA services;
- Has the NPA been fundamentally transformed;
- Are we improving service delivery, particularly in relation to backlogs.
I wish you well with the duration of the conference. And please keep up the good work.
Thank you very much.
Speech written by:
Makhaya Mani
Media Liaison Officer
Ministerial Spokesman
Tel: 021 483 3873
Cell: 082 780 4493
Western Cape- a ( safer) Home for All
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