February 5, 2004
By Lucky Sindane
JOBURG'S first municipal court is expected to sit as soon as the City's new by-laws are promulgated and right now preparations are underway to make sure every thing is in place for the big day.
"At the moment we are busy recruiting staff for the court," says City of Johannesburg director for legal services Karen Bester. The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department is currently recruiting administrative staff while legal services will recruit a prosecutor. "Our aim is to appoint someone who is fully trained, unless the national Department of Justice decides the person needs to be trained," said Bester.
The new court, to be based in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court building, will deal with municipal offences - the violation of by-laws regulating activities such as street trading, noise control and vandalism. The aim of setting up such a court is to speed up the prosecution of by-laws and traffic violations.
"People should not just know that there are by-laws, but know that we will enforce them," says mayoral committee member for municipal entities, Councillor Brian Hlongwa. "We are establishing a dedicated and focused entity to deal with municipal crimes." Hlongwa was talking during the official opening of the City Council last week.
The municipal court's jurisdiction will be limited, with its powers being equal to those of a magistrate's court. The court will be able to issue fines up to R10 000 or a term of imprisonment of not longer than six months. Johannesburg metro police officers will be able to issues warnings and summonses to those who contravene the City's by-laws.
Initially the municipal court will hear cases from the inner city. However, over time municipal courts will be established in the other magisterial districts of Johannesburg. "As time goes on places like Randburg, Roodepoort and other areas will be covered as well," says Pieter de Klerk, who is the coordinator of the new by-laws.
Plans to establish a municipal court were originally approved by the Department of Justice in 2002. So far, pilot courts have been set up in Pretoria, Cape Town and in KwaZulu-Natal.
Although Joburg's municipal court was expected to begin hearings in November 2002, the process was postponed until the promulgation of new by-laws adopted by the City of Johannesburg in the middle of last year.
"At the moment there is a traffic court running and matters concerning fines are heard in this court, but we can't start operating a fully-functioning municipal court until the new by-laws are promulgated," said De Klerk.
Bester added that it was not feasible to have a court implementing old by-laws and having to change these rules within a few months.
In his State of the City address at the opening of the Council last week the executive mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, said: "The municipal court will be in operation during this year and everything has been done and finalised from the council's side. The establishment of the municipal court for the magisterial district of Johannesburg must coincide with the promulgation of the new by-laws or follow shortly thereafter, since it is expected that the processing of offences in terms of the new by-laws will require some preparation before offenders can be prosecuted."
Fine schedules are currently with the chief magistrates for the 10 magisterial districts of Johannesburg, who have to formally approve the structures. "Currently the draft by-laws are with me and the fine schedules are with the chief magistrates," said De Klerk. "As soon as they finish studying the fine schedules and give their approval the by-laws can be published in the provincial gazette," De Klerk said.
"The city's councillors and officials are as eager as the public for the municipal court to start operating," he added.
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