Delays force Eastern Cape courts to 'brink of collapse'

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in Port Elizabeth Hannelie Bakker said she was no longer able to deliver justice to the victims of crime and communities at risk due to delays of up to three years in finalising matters, caused by problems with court rolls. The report says a total of 43 accused implicated in some of the city's worst crimes - including house robberies, hijackings, cash-in-transit robberies, child rapes and gang murders - appeared yesterday for 15 separate cases to be postponed as trial rolls are too clogged up with partly heard matters to allow for new cases to start. In the Eastern Cape High Court (Port Elizabeth), only two judges are assigned to hear criminal matters every week. Lawyers said the main cause of the delays was the practice that complex criminal trials were set down for no longer than a week at a time, leading to several postponements that could delay the finalisation of cases by up to a year. Full report in The Herald (subscription needed)