Four new courts for Mpumalanga

MBOMBELA – Mpumalanga will receive four new courts out of the 16 planned to be built throughout the country at a cost of R800 million.

These courts are said to be in various stages and are planned to improve courts’ accessibility, even to people living with disability. This was revealed by the minister of justice and correctional services, Advocate Michael Masutha during his one-day visit at the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court and to the site. The new Mpumalanga High Court is almost 56% completed and its completion date is June 2016.

Masutha said R800 million has been set aside to be used to expand and improve some of the dilapidated courts’ infrastructures in the country as a whole. “We are looking at four new courts to be built in Mpumalanga, one in Evander, Lothair, Hendrina and we are looking at expanding the White River Magistrate’s Court as some extra rooms are needed there,” he said.
The purpose of the minister’s visit was to inspect the court’s operational systems and the provision of justice services to the public by its staff. This forms part of the Masutha’s visits which began at all nine regional offices and the lower courts in the country.

“We are here to look at the state of service delivery through interaction with different units including National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), legal units, magistrates’ and other offices, maintenance of the court building, security, and backlogs,” said Masutha.He added that the aim was to identify solutions and monitoring programmes in all the courts of the country. The interior facility was also checked to see if it is friendly enough even for people living with disabilities.

The minister’s visits to courts began a week ago in the Western Cape, then moved to Mpumalanga and is expected to be in Limpopo again this week.