Access to justice set back by fraud, corruption claims
THE Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is investigating allegations of fraud and corruption involving billions of rand for construction of additional courts that are unaccounted for.
There are currently 763 magistrate’s courts and 14 high courts buildings countrywide.
One case of alleged fraud and corruption is the inflation of costs for building eight courts from R3 billion to R6bn with only four courts built.
The SIU is investigating this, including the involvement of officials of the Independent Development Trust, an entity of the Department of Public Works.
Justice spokesperson Steve Mahlangu confirmed there was a backlog, but said it was attributed to the Covid19 pandemic,
Authorities have discovered poor workmanship and low-quality building material used in the construction of the Limpopo High Court. The doors and windows were improperly aligned or damaged; frequent electrical outages resulted in lifts being out of service; and a poor drainage system resulting in flooding.
Justice and Correctional Services portfolio committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe said: “Corruption by officers of the courts is a serious attack on the justice system. We cannot accept that the building of courts went 100% over its budget.”
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and SIU have formed the Infrastructure Built Anti-Corruption Forum (IBACF), which Minister Patricia de Lille and SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi launched in Cape Town recently. De Lille said a new high court in Nelspruit opened last year, allegedly built at inflated costs, but did not have an access road, the construction of which had been paid for.
“So this beautiful court was almost in the middle of nowhere, now the access road had to be done by the municipality, and the municipality also approved the plan for the building without including the access road,” said De Lille.
Attorney Lwazi Mnguni of the Durban-based MLS Attorneys Inc said: “There is a serious challenge with the capacity of courts to dispose of cases starting with the high court.
“Right now, when you are looking for a date at the high court for trial, you are looking at the end of 2022 for a civil matter. And when you are looking for a date for an appeal matter your turnaround time to have an appeal finalised could easily be two years.”
A Johannesburg-based law firm has for years been frustrated by the shortage of courts, which has led to delaying finalisation of cases, especially claims against the Road Accident Fund.
“The court always has to postpone cases for a longer period all because of the court’s busy schedule. If there can be specialised courts to deal with RAF matters this would help to reduce the bottleneck,” said the lawyer.
According to Mothibi, the SIU was mandated to investigate corruption cases worth more than R10bn in connection with public infrastructure development.
Among issues being probed are contractors illegally graded higher than they deserve, illegal issuing of environmental permits “for large developers to develop in sensitive environmental areas”, defrauding the state through the usage of substandard construction material to make more profit, and “facilitation fee/bribery/ kickbacks, among others”.
“The (IBACF) will galvanise all stakeholders into action and ensure that Infrastructure Built Projects are monitored more effectively and put measures and systems in place to fight against fraud and corruption, and identify areas of co-operation to enhance prevention, detection, civil litigation and prosecution of fraud and corruption in the Infrastructure Build Sector,” Mothibi said. |