Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
children’s rights not to be detained – except as a measure of last resort, in which case
only for the shortest appropriate period of time, separately from persons older than 18,
and in a manner that takes into account the age of the child – have not enjoyed sufficient
protection up until now. However, the picture does seem to be improving, with an evergrowing
recognition of the value of diverting children away from the mainstream criminal
justice system.
Available data suggest that between 9 000 and 13 000 children are arrested monthly by
the SAPS. In 2007, 1 166 unsentenced children were in prison; an improvement on the
2 934 children in 2005. The length of time that children are detained, especially
unsentenced children, is cause for concern. In March 2006, 21 unsentenced children
were detained for over a year (in Presidency 2009: 91).
The use of diversion is potentially having a positive effect on these figures. Of the 5 000
children whose cases were heard in courts every month in South Africa in 2009/10,
between 1 300 and 1 900 were diverted from the mainstream criminal justice system into
diversion programmes (DoJCD 2010: 5).
Courts beyond the reach of children in rural areas
The legacy of apartheid has left many rural areas and townships without adequate access
to magistrate’s courts or other justice service sites, as they are mainly located in the urban
and developed areas. A number of branch courts were established to provide services
to rural areas and townships, but these have historically lacked infrastructure, are underresourced
and, as a result, deliver poor-quality services (DoJCD 2010). The DoJCD does
have plans, however, to transform branch courts into main magisterial courts with their
own jurisdiction so that they can provide a full set of justice services to marginalised
communities. This will be supplemented by building additional new courts in areas which
have shown a pronounced need for justice services. These goals are included in the
Department’s strategic plan, but at the same time the plan acknowledges that financial
resources will remain a challenge to realising these objectives.
Language barriers
Language barriers impede access to courts and court-based protection services. Many
communities and courts require interpreters that are not available (DoJCD 2010).
Workload and lack of resources
The introduction of the Children’s Act will see a significant increase in the jurisdiction
and workload of the children’s courts. This will undeniably be in the best interests of
vulnerable children. However, the increase in the jurisdiction and workload will require
sufficient human and financial resources to meet the increased demand. It appears that
it is unlikely that the DoJCD will be able to meet the demand because of inadequate
resources, both financial and human.
A costing of the Children’s Act revealed that the current availability of resources is entirely
inadequate to properly implement the Children’s Act and for the Department to meet its
obligations. For example, in 2010/11, the number of magistrates required to deliver the
services contemplated by the Children’s Act will exceed the total number of magistrates
serving all the courts in the country in 2004/05 (Barberton 2006). In addition, it is
estimated that the DoJCD will have to employ more than 1 000 family counsellors to deal
with access orders and parental plans. In practice, they are social workers and this will
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