There is still a backlog of cases in the country's courts, particularly in Gauteng, one of the busiest divisions. This time, the bottleneck is primarily in clearing the rolls of unopposed motions.

Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, Deputy Judge President Roland Sutherland has subsequently announced a “Big Bang Week” during which he hoped that the hundreds of unopposed motions (cases in which there is no opposition) could be disposed of.

The judge issued a directive in which he called on the legal fraternity to assist in alleviating this backlog.

In his directive, Judge Sutherland said that regrettably, the lead time in the unopposed motion court is currently approximately 17 weeks. The registrar is, at present, setting down matters in the last week of term two - thus only between June 17 and 20.

“The aspiration is to organise the unopposed motion court to run on a six-week cycle. The approximate number of requests for date is about 750 per week,” the judge said.

He added that henceforth that approximate number shall be set down in the next available week.

Judge Sutherland explained that the effect of this ought to inhibit the lead time from infinitely extending further and further.

However, he said this step could not reduce the lead time from 17 weeks.

“Hence it seems appropriate to organise a big bang week in which acting judges, pro bono, each hear 75 matters per day. To create a sizable dent, it is contemplated to appoint 20 acting judges to each sit for two days (either Tuesday and Thursday or Wednesday and Friday) each hearing 150 cases.”

Judge Sutherland said the effect would be to reduce the lead time by five weeks. The net result would be a lead time of 12 weeks. If the exercise is repeated later in the third term, it is estimated the lead time can be brought down to six weeks, he said.

According to him, the benefit to the profession and the litigating public is self-evident.

To achieve this objective, he called for volunteers to participate in this exercise.

The recruitment phase is to be completed by March 28, and those in the legal fraternity who want to assist in the “big bang” project can apply by emailing their details to secretarydjp@judiciary.org.za

Last year, Judge Sutherland also expressed his concerns over the mounting backlogs in civil trial matters, with trial dates for these cases only being available in 2029. He commented at the time that even using between eight to 10 pro bono additional acting judges a week, it is doubtful if this will reduce the backlog significantly.

He said it is estimated that in order to reduce the civil lead time to less than 12 months, it would require about 20 judges in civil trials alone each week.

The Auditor-General’s Office told Parliament in November last year that the country’s courts experience a case backlog, with more than 100 000 cases still to be finalised.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za