Just a thought...

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday June 3, 2015 14:08

It is a concern shared by many Batswana who have had a case brought before our courts. Whatever the reason for delays in delivery of judgment, there is no doubt the courts are inundated. 

Complexity of cases may not exactly be the reason cases delay, but rather the way the system is designed.  The system has created in itself bottlenecks that make it difficult for it to timeously dispense justice.

What creates such holdups is the system’s hoarding of every case to itself.  Take for example a case of driving without a driver’s license or driving a defective vehicle. 

Elsewhere on the planet, countries have realised that one does not need to have been to a law school to arbitrate in such a matter.  Countries such as England and Wales have for years practiced Community Magistracy. 

Community Magistrates are judicial officers who sit on a wide range of less serious cases in the criminal summary jurisdiction of the District Court. 

The benefit in having community magistrates is that they increase the judicial resource available to the courts and free up the expertise of law-schooled court officers to deal with more complex cases. 

The system is not exactly like of our customary court system whose jurisdiction is very limited.  For example, a customary court will not handle a traffic offence.

Would it not make more sense to send a traffic offender whose hooter does not work to a community magistrates’ court rather than to our regular magistrates courts where the matter is likely to be decided upon after many months?

That would certainly take the burden off legally schooled magistrates and allow them to focus on more serious cases.

Needless to say, community magistrates would receive training before they could start work and would have a legally apt secretary to research and advise on the more technical issues.

More importantly, appointees would be intelligent persons with ‘above average’ common sense, integrity and the capacity to act fairly. 

Most of this has been done by traditional dikgosi, some of whom only went as far as Sub-A.  Yet, because they have judicial aptitude, they are able to dispense justice.

Introducing community magistrates would simply be a way of providing another forum, with equal or slightly greater jurisdiction than the traditional courts, so as to allow speedier provision of justice. 

Community magistracy has helped countries that practice it to deal with thousands of cases on time. That has allowed the ‘bigger’ courts to dedicate their time and resources to more serious matters.

Could this system work for our situation? Just a thought...

Today’s thought

“Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.” - Blaise Pascal