JUSTICE and Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee chairperson, Xola Nqola, has accused the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure Development (DPWI) of being a stumbling block to service delivery.
He said the department was failing on its mandate to upgrade some of the crumbling court buildings, which he said affects the functioning of the justice system, leading to case backlogs.
“Matters that are supposed to be concluded within 90 days cannot be concluded because we have less capacity to finish a roll of a day.
“If, in a day, we have 10 matters in a roll because of the capacity that we have, we finish six, which means some of those matters are not going to be finalised within a set period, which is the 90 days,” said Nqola.
Nqola made the allegations after the committee had concluded its unannounced oversight visits in KwaZulu-Natal, where it saw the appalling conditions of the court infrastructure.
He said the extension of Umlazi Magistrates Court, south of Durban, started in 2016, but the work has not yet been completed.
Nqola said the department kept asking for more budget for the Umlazi project without finishing the first allocation.
“This court that they are building here (in Umlazi) is costing R79 million because it is the renovation and extension.
“When they complain about issues related to funding, we are saying to them it is fine, but there are votes in their funding system that they have not used [which] is an amount that is close to R10 million where they only used R225 000,” said Nqola.
DPWI has not responded to questions sent to its spokespeople James de Villiers and Bukiwe Cimela on April 1.
Nqola said it was confusing that the Umlazi court project was still incomplete because a bigger project of extending nearby Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court at the cost of over R240 million, which also started in 2016, was completed on time.
“But the cheaper one in Umlazi is nine years old now without being completed, which sends a message that you are undermining the people of Umlazi because it does not make sense that you concluded that cost close to R300 million on time,” he said.
He said the old building was too small to accommodate the population of Umlazi, which according to Nqola, is the second biggest township in the country.
“We are fighting with them, and we chased them out of the Umlazi meeting because we thought they are a stumbling block to the service delivery, and we instructed their seniors to come and report properly on this thing,” he said.
He accused the DPWI of failing to prioritise its finances when it came to the Umlazi court.
After the financial year concluded on March 31, Nqola said the department were not able to spend the remaining funds if they had not already done so for the entire financial year.
“The point here is the financial reprioritisation, which is why we are saying we have the budgeting cycle, which is the six months that within a financial year you can do a budget review.
“In that review, you thought you were going to buy a cap, shoes and a pair of jeans, and you have less funds for the jeans, but you have more funds for the cap, then you reprioritise and take funds from the cap and join them for the jeans. Why was that not done for many financial years?” he said.
During an interview with this reporter, Nqola spoke about a number of projects of refurbishment of crumbling court buildings that have not started despite the Department of Justice having made a request many years ago. The committee is currently visiting various provinces to assess the conditions of the court buildings, and it is not happy with what it has seen so far.
Nqola also raised concern about the condition of the Verulam Magistrates Court building, which he said was the worst and urgently needed R70 million to renovate.
He said the building was crumbling in and out, and some of the courtrooms were no longer usable as ceilings were falling, carpets had developed mold and produced unbearable smell, and the walls had cracks.
The Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA), which also conducted its own oversight visits, confirmed what the committee saw at the Verulam court.
Nqola said while it was good that the government has built many courts in rural areas, which is “a good sign that we are bringing justice closer to the people”, the infrastructure maintenance was a problem.
“We have found that Public Works always becomes a problem in terms of the reports we get.
“In a particular court, the Department of Justice has submitted a request for A, B, C and D to be fixed, but it has been three years now, and that matter has not been attended to,” he said.
He said on his visit to the Eastern Cape province “a month ago”, he found the worse courts while others were in acceptable conditions.
“There are courts that you can see that this one is what you call an ideal court infrastructure that needs to be maintained to stay like that for years if properly maintained.
He said he found a court building in Burgersdorp, Joe Gqabi District Municipality, in a dire state and also visited another one in Queenstown, which he found well-structured and maintained “but of course with some few challenges.”
He said the committee would only know the total amount of money needed to renovate and expand all the courts in the country after completing its oversight visits.
“We are yet to formulate the magnitude of these the problem but we also, as part of our committee programme, have got regular quarterly update by the Department of Justice on court infrastructure and maintenance plans.
“We are still going to produce a report and submit it to parliament,” he said.