LOWER COURTS, MAGISTRATES BILLS STILL WORKS IN PROGRESS

LOWER COURTS, MAGISTRATES BILLS STILL WORKS IN PROGRESS

• 11 July 2024
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

Justice & Constitutional Development Deputy Minister, Andries Nel, has confirmed that work is underway on revising the draft Lower Courts and Magistrates Bills released in 2022 for public comment. In a speech on the 2024/25 budget vote for the Office of the Chief Justice, the Deputy Minister said that ‘more in-depth discussions’ on input received from key stakeholders will follow their meetings with former Deputy Minister John Jeffery. In that regard, Nel referred to representatives of the Magistrates Commission, the Regional Court Presidents Forum, the Chief Magistrates Forum, the Association of Regional Magistrates of Southern Africa, and the Judicial Officers Association of South Africa.

Gazetted in March 2022, at the time the the draft Magistrates’ Bill’s overarching objective was to establish a ‘magistrates commission’ to assume responsibility for regulating ‘the appointment, conditions of service, remuneration, retirement, suspension and removal of magistrates’. This was with the intention of:

• ensuring the autonomy of the lower courts judiciary from the executive
• aligning the procedures for dealing with complaints about the conduct of magistrates with those in place for judicial officers of the High Courts, and
• consolidating provisions in the 1944 Magistrates’ Courts Act and the 1993 Magistrates Act for appointing judicial officers of the lower courts.

Published in April 2022, at the time the draft Lower Courts Bill sought to provide for:

• the establishment, composition and functioning of lower courts comprising regional courts, district courts and municipal courts, and
• the administration of the judicial functions of these courts.

Against that backdrop, it is envisaged that the 1994 Magistrates’ Courts Act will eventually be repealed.

• speech
• 2022 draft Magistrates Bill
• 2022 draft Lower Courts Bill

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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