People tired of postponements at Randburg Magistrate’s Court
Out of seven people, one was satisfied with the state of the legal system and believed Randburg Magistrate's Court is coping with its high number of cases.
While some people are happy with the legal system and believe Randburg Magistrate’s Court is efficient, most are not satisfied and have had to wait months and years for judgments to be made.
One woman has been waiting eight years for a maintenance matter, while an attorney has been working on a criminal case since 2017.
This was revealed after Randburg Sun asked people about their experiences at the court in Bryanbrink, between the larger suburbs of Ferndale and Kensington B.
“The department [of Justice and Constitutional Development] is not functioning well with the backlog here,” said attorney Fundi Khumalo.
“I have a criminal case that has been going on since 2017. We need to look at upgrading the system because we have just seen postponement after postponement.”
Disebo Malesa said, “They keep postponing my assault case that has been going on since June. It is frustrating and I wish it would be over.”
Richard Masvosva and BJ Smith agreed the court was not coping with all the cases, but this was more due to the high level of crime than any failings of the court or legal system.
“The government is not handling crime well at all,” Smith said.
“Gangsterism is such a huge problem and there are deaths every day. Perhaps if we called it a matter of genocide, then the government would respond more strongly, provide better funding and oversight to the police.”
Masvosva said fraud was another problem endemic to the country, keeping our courts full to capacity.
Wendy Ferguson has had a criminal case at the court for three years, but a maintenance matter for eight.
“There is still no end in sight for the maintenance one and I do not know what to do about it,” she said.
Another man, who would not be named because of his ongoing civil case, said the court and its officials were all struggling with an overload of cases.
By contrast, Tauriq Achnat was the only person happy with the functioning of the court, but this was only in light of other, slower courts.
“I was in and out in a few minutes, unlike other courts where there are long delays,” he said.
“Yes we have to come back in October, so the case was postponed, but everything seems to be running better here at Randburg than elsewhere.”
Questions were sent to regional spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority, Phindi Mjonondwana, and her comments will be published when we receive a response.
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