Kahn takes High Court to task

2003-03-11 08:21

Elsabé Brits

Cape Town - In a sharp attack on the High Court system, provincial director of public prosecutions Frank Kahn said these courts were unproductive and one of a few in the world that took a recess which crime did not.

This comes after Deputy Judge-President Jeanette Traverso recently decided to close three of the 12 criminal courts in the Cape High Court until the end of March.

In effect, this means that nine court weeks, in which new criminal cases could be heard, will be lost.

Two of the 12 criminal courts are handling only minimum sentences.

Three criminal cases were postponed to the next quarter on Monday. After the State and the defence objected, an attempt was made to use the empty courts.

Next week, two more courts will be used for minimum sentences for the rest of the quarter as some people have been waiting for more than two years for sentence to be handed down.

Judge Traverso apparently made the decision because there were not enough judges available. It is apparently rare for 12 judges to be available in the criminal courts.

816 trial days 'wasted'

Kahn's office said this was one of the reasons for the overcrowding of prisons and why people were being denied their human rights.

"It is not excusable, there are 28 judges and criminal courts must receive precedence."

The High Court never hears new criminal cases in the week before a recess and also not in the first week after a recess. They also do not handle criminal cases on Fridays.

The 10 criminal courts therefore each wastes 816 trial days every year and this is unproductive, Kahn said.

He said the Cape High Court heard only 5% of all the serious criminal cases in the province while the lower courts dealt with the rest.

Chief Justice John Hlope disagreed with Kahn, saying that, with respect, he should don his toga again and help to clear some of the cases.

He said the courts' time was often wasted by suspects who arrived late from prisons, prosecutors and advocates who took up time in chambers and a shortage of clerks at the court. He said civil cases tied judges up for months.

Hlope said judges were not lazy people who sat around doing nothing all day.

"We do our work honestly and do not run to the media with our complaints."

Kahn said he had to keep an eye on 288 prosecutors and judges and "if I didn't have to do this, I would go to help out at court, but there are not judges to hear the cases".

He said: "Hlope should rather give attention to the hundreds of awaiting-trial prisoners who have waited years for sentence in a land where a speedy trial is guaranteed."

The High Court's criminal courts should be totally overhauled so that they could sit throughout the year without recess, he said, because that was the only way in which the backlog in cases could be overcome.

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- Die Burger