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CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM INQUIRY: TERMS OF REFERENCE GAZETTED
- 23 July 2025
- Justice & Constitutional Development
- SA Legal Academy
Please note: 1) On 23 July 2025, Parliament issued a media statement announcing that the National Assembly had approved a report recommending that an ad hoc committee be established to consider wide-ranging security-related allegations to be investigated by the new judicial commission but nevertheless also falling within the mandates of the Justice & Constitutional Development and Police Committees. The report can be found on page 61 of the parliamentary papers concerned. 2) On 19 August 2025, the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development gazetted a notice making the provisions of the 1947 Commissions Act applicable to the inquiry. The notice included regulations specific to that inquiry. 3) On 22 August 2025, the department gazetted rules governing inquiry proceedings, with a notice confirming that they will take place in Pretoria. 4) On 22 August 2025, Parliament’s ad hoc committee published its draft terms of reference, which have yet to be formally adopted.
The Department of Justice & Constitutional Development has gazetted a presidential proclamation formally establishing a judicial inquiry into ‘criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system’. Setting out the inquiry’s terms of reference, the proclamation comes ten days after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his decision to establish the necessary judicial commission – prompted by ‘the specific allegations made public by Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on 6 July 2025’.
According to the terms of reference, the commission ‘shall inquire into, report on and make findings and recommendations concerning … whether criminal syndicates, including, but not limited to drug cartels, have infiltrated or exert undue influence over’ key criminal justice institutions, including:
- the South African Police Service, its ‘political killings task team’ and ‘crime intelligence’ unit
- the National Prosecuting Authority
- the State Security Agency
- any member of the judiciary, the magistracy and courts administration, and
- various metropolitan police and national government departments.
The commission has three months to prepare an interim report and a further three to finalise it.
- Government Gazette notice
- President’s 13 July 2025 announcement
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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