400% rise in civil cases

Gauteng's high courts have had a 400 percent increase in civil cases since 1987 and are in desperate need of more judges, the Judicial Services Commission heard in Cape Town.

Gauteng Acting Deputy Judge President Willem van der Merwe, who was speaking during an interview with the commission for a permanent deputy judge president position, said the Gauteng High Court was dealing with around 100 civil matters a day.

"On 31 December 1987, we opened 21,290 civil files," he said.

"Up to April 12 this year, we have opened close on 21,000 civil files. We are heading for between 90,000 and 100,000 civil matters this year."

"We are talking about a 400 percent increase between 1987 and 2010 and I am only talking about civil matters.

"We haven't spoken about criminal trials, appeals, mental patients who we must review, bail appeals, ordinary reviews."

The increase in civil cases was one of the main reasons why the court was experiencing such a high number of reserved judgments.

"Our workload has increased by roughly 400 percent, but the number of judges has not increased to the same degree. We need more judges.

"We have 30 judges in Pretoria on active service, plus a judge president and myself, and then we have nine permanent acting judges, plus acting judges, coming and going.

"We battle from time to time to manage. Yes we need an increase in judges."

The backlog in cases was also affecting business in intellectual property cases.

"We can't allow that once a summons has been issued for them to wait for two years to get a court. Then three years to get a judgment and then six months to get an appeal. Then three, four, five years for appeal to be heard."

Van der Merwe, who was commended for being an excellent candidate by JSC commissioner Ngoako Ramathlodi, said it was vital to have an experienced judge presidents to mentor the transfer experience and skills to other judges.

Judge Lucy Mailula, who was also applying for the position, told the commissioners that a lack of proficiency in Afrikaans was causing problems in the high court.

"Afrikaans does pose a number of challenges to our colleagues," she said.

"It is a third language and one often has to sit with a dictionary next to you.

"If you are a slow reader, you will now be triple or quadruple slow."