Chief Justice Raymond Zondo refuses to be drawn into whether he was captured question

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo refused to be drawn on the question of whether he was captured or not during his tenure as the Head of South Africa’s Judiciary. This question was placed before Zondo during his presentation of the 2022/23 Annual Judiciary Report at the Constitutional Court.

The report aims to account to the public on the overview of the Judiciary’s performance of its functions. Chief Justice Raymond Zondo began his farewell with his final presentation of the Annual Judiciary Report.

His tenure and perceptions surrounding it were thrust before him, Zondo, however, refused to entertain a discussion about the labels thrown at him by what he terms as “the enemies made” while conducting the important work of the State Capture Commission.

“The second question was based on saying I am a captured judge, again I think the question has no relevance to the report. I accept that particularly for the work that I did as the chairperson of the State Capture Commission, I made many enemies and that some of them from time to time hurled insults at me and some of them want to discredit me but I believe that majority of South Africans, as Mr Dugmore indicated, know the truth and appreciate the work that I together with all those who were involved in the commission did. I will not engage in a discussion of whether I am captured or not.”

The 2022/23 financial year saw Superior Courts in South Africa’s Judiciary achieve 11 of the 13 performance targets set, representing an 85% achievement.

Two performance targets, however, were not achieved. These are the percentage of finalised Constitutional Court matters which had a target of 70% but only achieved 55%, as well as the percentage to which criminal case backlogs are reduced which only achieved 47%, but the target was a 30% reduction.

On the first target dealing with the challenges faces by the Constitutional Court, the Chief Justice highlighted the need for an amendment to the Constitution.

“The public will be aware that recently the Constitutional Court took the position that in order for it to properly discharge its obligations and perform in an acceptable way. It will be necessary for an amendment to be made to the constitution so that it is able to dispose of a number of matters without every justice having to take part in every case.”

The report further highlighted the significant impact of load shedding on the operation of courts.

“The continuous load shedding (which has stopped temporarily) which had an adverse impact on the operations of the courts compared to the previous reporting period, the number of outstanding criminal cases increased by 19% compared to the 917 outstanding cases and 2% in the number of criminal case backlogs compared to the 453 reported criminal case backlogs. This increase is also ascribed to logistical challenges mainly due to the continuous load shedding which had an adverse effect.”

This is the final report to be delivered by Chief Justice Zondo whose term ends at the end of August making way for the tenure of South Africa’s first woman Chief Justice following the appointment of Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya with effect from 1 September 2024.

Source: eNCA

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