Judges told to shape up

2003-06-03 21:31

Christi van der Westhuizen

Cape Town - It should be possible to measure the performance of judges, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said on Tuesday.

Addressing the parliamentary committee on justice and constitutional affairs, Maduna and his deputy Cheryl Gilwald said the government should also review court recesses and specialist training of magistrates.

The present restructuring of magisterial jurisdictions should also not perpetuate the crudeness of apartheid, he said.

Judges and magistrates alike were negative towards training, even though they desperately needed it to discern between good and bad forensic evidence.

For example, he said, a woman had to be beaten black and blue before they would believe that she had a case.

Although there were judges and magistrates doing a prime job, lazybones would have to be moved out. A mechanism had to be developed to measure their performance.

Maduna also undertook to intervene at the Johannesburg High Court where poor labour relations interfered with productivity.

He said he suspected a lack of leadership aggravated the situation.

Despite problems, Maduna was of the opinion that courts performed better than in the past and that court hours had increased from 2.3 hours a day to 5.5 hours.

Apartheid configurations in court would be eliminated, he said, even though it would upset some people. "We are here to do a job, not to keep people happy."

- Beeld