General: KZN, E Cape magisterial districts to be rationalised

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has drawn attention to the proposed rationalisation of magisterial districts and courts across the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, the details of which were gazetted at the end of March for comment, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. According to a media statement released on Friday, the move forms part of a rationalisation project seeking to redress the legacy of past ‘spatial injustices’. Once operational, the proposed new districts are expected to create a ‘jurisdictional footprint’ aimed at advancing access to justice – in keeping with National Development Plan imperatives. The magisterial districts envisaged are aligned to municipal boundaries redrawn by the Municipal Demarcation Board while, ‘to the extent possible’, the proposed areas of jurisdiction of divisions of the High Court are aligned to provincial boundaries determined in the Constitution.

For KwaZulu-Natal, 10 magisterial districts are mooted: one serving a single metropolitan area, with the remainder serving the province’s nine district municipalities. It is proposed that each magisterial district should be divided into sub-districts, with a total of 24 envisaged for the entire province. In the Eastern Cape, eight magisterial districts are apparently proposed, although numbers appearing in parenthesis in the explanatory media statement do tend to confuse the issue by not tallying. This notwithstanding, it is mooted that two should serve metropolitan areas, with the remaining six serving the province’s district municipalities – divided into 22 sub-districts in total. Interested and affected parties have until 15 May to comment.