JUDICIARY: JUSTICE MINISTER OUTLINES PLANS FOR FULL INSTITUTIONAL INDEPENDENCE

Justice & Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has provided more details on the practical implications of steps already under way to place South Africa’s judiciary ‘on the path to full institutional independence’. Delivering her department’s 2025/26 Budget vote in the National Assembly, the Minister expressed confidence that what is envisaged ‘will enable the judiciary to be(come) a fully-fledged arm of the state’.

According to the Minister:

  • the process entailed will begin during ‘this financial year’
  • the intended outcome is expected to be ‘structural …, financial ... and operational independence’
  • in line with the constitutional imperatives, ‘judicial governance and court administration will be placed under the authority of the judiciary itself’
  • in keeping with government’s commitment to ‘establish a single Judiciary’, the administration of the lower courts (including the Magistrates Commission) will also be transferred the Office of the Chief Justice
  • the Chief Justice will become the executive authority of the Office of the Chief Justice
  • the secretary general will be the entire judiciary’s accounting authority, and
  • the Office of the Chief Justice will be:
    • ‘re-established outside the public service’, and
    • ‘capacitated to appoint its staff in line with its own prescripts, (creating a) human resource framework tailored to judicial operations and (the) principles of independence.

To that end, a task team already established ‘to chart a way’ for the process entailed has until the ‘end of August’ to present a ‘progress report’ to Cabinet. Apparently, the team includes ‘senior officials’ from:

  • the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development
  • the Presidency
  • the Office of the Chief Justice
  • National Treasury
  • the Department of Public Service & Administration, and
  • the Department of Public works & Infrastructure.

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Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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