Criminal Justice Strengthening Programme (CJSP) Achievements and Successes

[Last Updated : 29 April 2010]

This project was successfully completed at the end of July 2009 and successfully handed back to USAID.

Additionally information with regard to the work of the project is provided below:

Since 30 November 2006 – 31 December 2008, the CJSP – through sole funding provided by USAID – has been providing support to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ and CD) to improve organisational efficiency and skills development. Core responsibilities have included Project and Financial Management and Stakeholder liaison.

Training of Justice Sector Personnel to Drive the Development of Skills

A total of 1829 justice sector personnel have been trained in trial management (182 prosecutors), computer literacy (270 prosecutors and 71 judges to use electronic legal databases for court preparation), judgment writing (265 Magistrates), judicial leadership (112 lower court Magistrates), alternative sentencing (211 presiding officers), restorative justice (95 delegates) and implementing anti-corruption legislation (321 DSO prosecutors). With regard to the latter training, the developed manual covered such issues as procurement, fraud, corruption, and investigation techniques.

Under the rubric of the Association of Regional Magistrates of Southern Africa (ARMSA), a sentencing training conference was held benefitting 193 lower court judiciary. This conference assisted to empower Regional Magistrates with legal knowledge on aspects of sentencing, including guidelines for sentencing with regard to child rape, the analysis of relevant case law and evidentiary issues relating to sentencing.

9 highly renowned Judges have assisted through the CJSP to offer training on judgment writing to the lower court judiciary. These judges from the High Courts, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court are willing to assist the Justice College to institutionalise the programme.

As well, an experienced prosecutor has been engaged to provide on-the-job training at the Cape Town Commercial Crimes Court.

Support to the Community Courts to Improve Their Organisational Efficiency

Two Community Courts have been assisted through the Programme. These are the Kwa Mashu Community Court and the Mankweng Community Court.

In the Kwa Mashu Community Court, between the period January 2007 to September 2008, the following results have been achieved:

• 5,452 new case filings;
• 3,574 cases finalised;
• 2,058 cases withdrawn; and
• 1,944 cases diverted.

In the Mankweng Community Court, between the period October 2007 to September 2008, the following results have been achieved:

• 395 new case filings;
• 164 cases finalised;
• 21 cases withdrawn; and
• 0 cases diverted.

Within Cape Town, 3 Community Courts have been assisted.

Other Projects Implemented Through the CJSP –

The CJSP has supported a number of projects through its funding by USAID.

Development of a Document Management System

This includes a Document Management System (DMS – Phase 2) for the lower courts, whereby a DMS was designed and developed for the lower criminal courts. The system is being implemented in the following Magistrate Courts:

• Johannesburg Magistrate Court;
• Durban Magistrate Court;
• East London Magistrate Court;
• Molopo Magistrate Court; and
• Kempton Park Magistrate Court.

A second phase of software design, development and implementation is now being handled by Court Services.

In addition to the above, the CJSP assisted to fund the travel expenses of 14 delegates for a study tour to the National Centre for State Courts (NCSC) in the USA to provide additional training on Case Flow Management and Curriculum Development.

Court Statistics Analysis

20 Court sites in Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Western Cape were visited by a research team tasked to conduct a comparative analysis of court statistics and develop a framework and guidelines on the collection, collation and effective processing of court statistics.