Langa wants ‘agreed’ sections of controversial judicial Bills enacted

A report in The Weekender notes that objections from the legal community have seen the Superior Courts Bill and its parallel amendment to the Constitution shelved, with Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla indicating it will be another year before the Bills are re-tabled in Parliament. Addressing Parliament’s Justice Committee, Langa urged that there should be no delay in enacting provisions that improved access to justice for ordinary South Africans. He said the controversial bits of the legislation should stand over but the rest should go ahead. Part of what Langa was talking about was the creation of a seat of the High Court in each of the provinces. ‘Enact those areas where there is agreement,’ Langa said, adding that it was ‘painful’ that people still had to travel across provincial boundaries to access courts. He also made reference to the amendments to the Judicial Service Commission Act that would provide measure to regulate the conduct of judges and set up a complaints procedure. The absence of these measures was highlighted by the complaints that were brought against Cape Judge President John Hlophe. ‘It is obvious that measures should be put in place to regulate the conduct of judges,’ he said. Full report in The Weekender

Langa, however, admitted top judges were divided over what the language policy of the courts should be. ‘The heads of courts have issued a document to the Minister (of justice) on the issue of languages,\' he told the committee, adding: ‘The learned judges could not agree on what the language policy of the courts should be. There was a minority and majority view.’ According to a City Press report, Justice Ministry spokesperson Zolile Nqayi confirmed that a language policy had not yet been finalised. Judges have been divided between those who favour the use of all official languages in courts and those who favour the use of a selected few. Full City press report

On a positive note, Langa said the judiciary had started to fast-track women for judges\' jobs, which are still dominated by white males. ‘We are sparing no effort to produce a judiciary that is effective, competent and fully transformed, not only in terms of race and gender, but also in terms of being in tune with the values of the Constitution,’ Langa said, according to a report on the Mail & Guardian Online site. He noted that since 2004 there had been 206 appointments to the Bench, including 83 white males, 15 white females, 61 black males, 11 black females, six coloured males, six coloured females, 21 Indian males and three Indian females. Full report on Mail & Guardian Online site