April 3, 2002
By Thomas Thale
JOHANNESBURG will soon have four municipal courts to speed up the prosecution of by-law and traffic violations ranging from illegal structures to jaywalking to health hazards.
At a meeting in Pretoria last week, Minister of Justice Penuel Maduna and Executive Mayor Amos Masondo agreed to establish a task team to urgently explore pilot municipal courts in Johannesburg. In a joint statement after the meeting, the City of Johannesburg undertook to foot the bill for setting up the courts.
Initially, four municipal courts dedicated to the handling of by-law and traffic violations are to be set up in the inner city, Randburg, Meadowlands and Protea. According to Kgotso Chikane, spokesperson for the executive mayor, the courts will start operating in June.
The purpose of the courts is to speed up cases involving by-law contraventions. According to Chikane, magistrates do not treat the violation of by-laws seriously enough. "Often you'll find that they have more serious cases on their roll and simply dismiss petty offences. Dedicated municipal courts will help us to engender a culture of compliance with the by-laws," Chikane said.
Paul Setsetse, spokesman for the Justice Minister, said that local authorities often take the initiative to have municipal courts established in their areas. Pilot municipal courts already exist in Pretoria, Cape Town and KwaZulu Natal.
"The Minister has agreed that such a scheme could help the congested courts with dealing more effectively with the court loads and indicated that such a municipal court would be in line with other current initiatives such as Municipal Courts in Pretoria and Cape Town, Tax Courts in various centers in the country and commercial courts in Pretoria," the statement said.
According to Setsetse, if the pilot project runs successfully, the programme will be extended to the whole province of Gauteng.
