Minister’s planned revision of criminal justice system a desperate attempt to ensure ANC’s political survival

19 December 2023

Minister Ronald Lamola's recent announcement that he wants to reform the entire criminal procedure and criminal justice system in South Africa is a reckless and desperate attempt by the ANC government to ensure its political survival, even though it might spell disaster and cause immeasurable damage to judicature in South Africa.

Merely appointing an advisory committee consisting of academics and legal practitioners, assisted by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the police and Legal Aid South Africa, cannot replace the complex and functioning legislation put in place over a long time.

Criminal law and criminal procedure developed over many years in South Africa, is amended from time to time and consists of more than 350 sections, each addressing a specific legal aspect, which has been thoroughly researched and on which many theses have been published over the years.

Parliament is, however, frequently confronted with rash legislative amendments which are referred back to committees again and again, and often also lead to expensive and drawn-out Constitutional Court cases.

These rash legislative amendments are often fuelled by political ideology and blame shifting. In a pre-election year, this is obviously a desperate attempt to regain some political standing.

The criminal justice system has been overburdened with rising levels of crime, poor governance, load shedding, courts' inadequate capacity, excessively long court rolls, poor investigative work and the NPA for quite some time now.

To hold up so-called gaps in the existing legislation as a reason for this points to a lack of vision and accountability.

With his latest announcement, Lamola confirmed that he is totally out of his depth, and unable to responsibly address and manage the actual root cause of poor judicature.

The FF Plus strives to bring about a much-needed change of government in 2024 and to save South Africa's judicial authority from the hands of an incompetent ANC government.

Issued by Jaco Mulder, FF Plus MP and chief spokesperson: Justice, 19 December 2023