Pretoria - More than 1200 cases were finalised in high courts across South Africa in the 2009/10 financial year.
Briefing the media on the department's annual report for the year 2009/2010 on Sunday, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said the number was up by 12.5 percent compared to the previous year.
He said district courts finalised 90 percent of their cases while regional courts achieved 74 percent in terms on conviction rate.
Despite the Child Justice Act coming into effect in April this year, 71 percent of children's cases were being resolved within three months with the number of children awaiting trial reduced by 50 percent.
Currently there are 209 convicted children at correctional centres countrywide, while 3000 were detained at child and youth correctional facilities.
Radebe said the department undertook nine capital projects in 2009 aimed at the construction of new courts as well as the expansion of infrastructure on some of the existing courts to create office space.
Three courts were under construction in on the Gauteng's East Rand, in Durban and Limpopo while a further six projects is underway to expand offices in the Western Cape and Free State.
"As a department we have further improved access to justice by converting 15 branch courts into full service courts with their own areas of jurisdiction," said Radebe.
The department was working on plan to ensure that each of the 384 magisterial areas districts across the country had one Small Claims Court.
