Pretoria - Community members of Atteridgeville, Tsakane, Sebokeng, Secunda, Stilfontein and Orkney will now be able to access justice services right at their door steps following the proclamation of six branch courts as service courts.
With effect from today, the six branch courts in these communities will change their status from that of branch court into fully fledged independent magistrate’s courts, and will no longer depend on the courts in their neighbouring towns to render some of the services that they could not render in the past.
“The people living in these communities had to commute to outside towns and cities to access courts for purposes of obtaining redress in respect of civil disputes, accessing small claims courts, claim spousal and child maintenance and deceased estates,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement.
The conversion, announced by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe, entails the upgrading of the physical court infrastructure; increasing human resource capacity; allocating specific areas of jurisdiction for the courts; increasing their jurisdiction to provide services they were historically not designed to offer, and proclaiming the new courts as self-standing magistrate’s courts.
Nationally, a total of 24 branch courts across the country have been revamped and are operating as full service courts. The other outstanding 65 branch courts will be upgraded gradually in line with the vision set out in the National Development Plan.
This initiative is aimed at bringing more services to the people and enables the courts to deal with issues that directly affect communities.
“The process of upgrading branch courts and converting them into full service courts seeks to reduce travelling costs and time in the spirit of bringing justice closer to the people,” said the ministry, which encouraged people to take advantage of these extended services to resolve legal disputes. – SAnews.gov.za
