www.virtuallybaroque.com/audio/bwv748_ohbz.mp3.

Losung und Lehrtext für Freitag, den 1. Juni 2012

Wer den HERRN fürchtet, hat eine sichere Festung. (Sprüche 14,26)

Christus spricht: Wer meine Rede hört und tut sie, der gleicht einem klugen Mann, der sein Haus auf Fels baute. (Matthäus 7,24)

and here are the readings from Bagster’s “Daily Light” for June 1, 2012 – Friday Morning too:

The fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering, gentleness.1

The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abun-dant in goodness and truth.2

Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.3 Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.4 The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.5 Charity suffereth long, and is kind.6

In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.8
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1Gal 5:22; 2Exo 34:6; 3Eph 4:1,2,32; 4Jam 3:17; 51Co 13:4; 6Gal 6:9; 7Jam 5:7,8;

Wir wollen mit euch gehen, denn wir hören, dass Gott mit euch ist. Sacharja 8,23

Euer Leben mitten unter den Menschen, die Gott nicht kennen, muss einwandfrei sein. Wenn sie euch alles mögliche Böse nachsagen, sollen sie eure guten Taten sehen und von ihren eigenen Augen eines Besseren belehrt werden. 1.Petrus 2,2012 

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
Adv J du Preez
The FW de Klerk Foundation

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development recently announced its controversial decision to carry out an assessment of the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal. Perhaps its time and resources would be better spent by assessing the degree to which our lower courts are at present carrying out their prime function of  dispensing justice – and in particular, of ensuring the right of detainees “to have their trial begin and conclude without reasonable delay” in terms of section 35 (3) (d) of the Constitution. 

An assessment of the speed with which cases are finalised in the lower courts would be beneficial to the justice system, to victims of crime and to those charged with criminal offences.  Such an assessment could help the courts to deal with their heavy case load, particularly if it is aimed at identifying the reasons for delays within these court structures (and especially within the criminal justice system). By so doing it could improve the right of citizens to access to the courts and could also reduce the costs of running the judicial system.   

The serious backlog of cases – especially in the lower courts – goes back more than a decade. The problem was first acknowledged in 1999 by then Justice Minister Penuell Maduna.  In March 2006 then Justice Director-General Menzi Simelane reported an estimated backlog of 36 915 cases in the lower courts. In November 2006 then Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla acknowledged  that up to 60% of Cape Town courts and 76% of courts in Kwazulu-Natal faced huge backlogs:  At that stage the Johannesburg maintenance court had over 80 000 outstanding cases. The negative trend continued in 2007 with an estimated 210 000 outstanding cases. These cases included 37 000 dockets in the lower courts that were older than 12 months and 20 000 cases in the regional courts – where most serious and violent crime is dealt with. At that stage -despite appointing 260 new court managers- court sitting hours as well as case finalisation rates had been dropping steadily since 2003. 

Since 2009 there has been a steady increase in the number of people awaiting trial for more than two years in South African prisons. Figures indicate there were a total of 46 432 persons being held in detention while awaiting trial in October 2010. Of these, 2 080 had been in prison for more than two years with the vast majority of these (1 516) having been detained for more than three years.

Practitioners within the legal fraternity such as attorneys, advocates and prosecutors have identified the following factors as causes for unacceptable backlogs: 

–    The SAPS take very long to finish their investigations;
–    The poor quality of many SAPS investigations;
–    Court rolls (Regional and Disrict Courts) that are supposed to start at 09h00 in the morning but only start as late as 12h00 or thereafter;
–    Magistrates arriving for work only at 12h00 or therafter;
–    Instances where presiding officers take or are granted inordinate periods of leave of absence during court proceedings or running trials;
–    Escalating crime figures;
–    Understaffing of courts especially magistrates, prosecutors and interpreters;
–    A severe shortage of adequate courtrooms and/or buildings;
–    Poor case management and case-flow management ;
–    Tampering with, or loss of,  case records;
–    Mismanagement of the salaries of legal professionals within the department; and
–    The failure to fill large numbers of vacant magistrates and judges’ posts – even  where suitable candidates are available.

Another complicating factor is backlogs at the forensic science laboratories which play a crucial role in the investigation of crimes. According to the Ministry of Police there were 10 121 outstanding forensics reports in March 2008 – which represented an increase of 66% in less than a year. On average the waiting period for forensic results  increased from an average of 54 days in 2007 to 60 days in 2008. Police Minister Nathi Mthetwa reported that the backlog in forensics reports had jumped from 6 068 untested samples during June 2007 to 11 758 as of January in 2009. The number of stolen dockets had also increased from 382 in 2005 to 668 in 2008.

A recent case in the Western Cape illustrates the scope of the problem.  In January 2009 ten people were indicted with ten charges of murder and armed robbery. The case was finally concluded only in March 2012.  In the meantime the state provided the ten accused with ten counsel (one advocate representing each of the accused), at the State’s expense and via the Legal Aid Board. The cost to the taxpayers of the counsel during the course of the trial was more than R2-million. Add to this the cost of transporting the prisoners between Polsmoor and the court; the court’s time – including the judge, assessors, interpreters and clerks – and the total cost of the trial becomes truly enormous.   Ironically, the costs involved were much greater than the value of money that the criminals had been trying to steal.

The fact that these cases take so long to process is one of the causes of overcrowding in our  prisons. Overcrowding, in turn, was one of the factors in President Zuma’s recent decision to approve the early release of almost 15 000 sentenced prisoners. Awaiting trial prisoners are taking up too much prison capacity primarily because its takes too long to finalise their cases. According to the Department of Correctional Services the total prison population at the end of March 2012 stood at 162 162. Of these 112 467 are sentenced prisoners and 49 467 are awaiting trial. The country’s prisons are meant to house 118 154 prisoners.

Justice delayed is justice denied. There is a clear need to examine and overhaul the manner in which South Africa’s lower courts are dealing with their work load. The current situation impacts detrimentally on a whole array of individual constitutional rights including a victim’s right to dignity, everyone’s right to access to the courts and an accused person’s right to a fair trial which must be concluded without undue delay.  In order to respect and give effect to these rights government would do well to assess and address the dire backlogs in South Africa’s lower courts.

This girl can write. Just see for yourself: ’n Radio met knoppe word geBlackBerry | Beeld.

Ons boerseuns was daar!

Die artikel “Windpomp les grotes se dors” (LBW, 4 Mei) het betrekking.

Met die lees van hierdie artikel is ek teruggevoer na die bos en oorsprong van die eerste boorgat, wat aan die einde van die sestigerjare in die Oos-Caprivi geboor is.

Katima Mulilo, wat vandag die hoofstad van die streek is, het uit vier woonhuise en ’n polisiekantoor bestaan toe die groen Dreyerboormasjien daar opgedaag het.

Daar was geen boorplek-aanwysers nie, die aarde was plat en paaie was twee sandstrepe deur die bosse. Sand het die boorwerk geweldig bemoeilik en aanvanklik verhinder dat ’n staalvoering gebruik kan word.

Aanwysings oor waar die are raakgeboor kon word, was ’n toneelstuk wat applous verdien! Dit was mikstokke van verskillende boomsoorte, bottels met water en selfs gebuigde hoede wat in die lug gegooi is wat kwansuis op die regte plek sou val. Die eienaardigste was die geval van een ou wat selfs stuiptrekkings gekry het.

Maar mnr. Theuns Swanepoel, ’n polisieoffisier wat alombekend was as die Rooi Rus, het met ’n oplossing vorendag gekom. Spanwerk tussen polisieman, boorman en army-polisiemanne, soos dienspligtiges toentertyd genoem is, was noodsaaklik.

Snelsement en aartappelsakkies is ingevoer, dromme water uit die Zambezirivier is aangery en die grootste miershoop is platgestoot. In die grootste gat is daar toe begin boor.

Sement en miershoopgrond is tot dagha gemeng en in aartappelsakkies gegooi. Die boorstamper is uit die gat gelig en die sakkies sement is soos worse in die boorgat afgegooi. Dan is daar weer met die gestamp voortgegaan en is ’n voering deur die dagha gevorm. Met hierdie proses is voortgegaan tot op ’n harde formasie wat sowat 50 m diep was. Vandaar die suksesse.

Die Caprivi-strook is tussen Namibië, Angola, Zambië, Botswana en Zimbabwe geleë. Dit is genoem na graaf Georg Leo von Caprivi, ’n Duitse Imperiale kanselier wat verantwoordelik was vir die “Heligoland en Zanzibar-verdrag” wat op 1 Julie 1890 met Engeland gesluit is.

Engeland het die Caprivi Zipfel (visstrook), wat op die breedste 32 km is, aan Duitsland afgestaan in ruil vir Zanzibar, ’n eiland in die Indiese Oseaan, regoor die destydse Tanganjika wat toe nog ’n Duitse kolonie was. Die doel van die ruiling was om ’n roete tussen Duitse kolonies in Afrika te bewerkstellig. Vandaar die naam Tanzanië.

Min mense weet dat daar in die Oos-Caprivi nie klippe is nie, behalwe op die bodem van die Zambezi-rivier en dat die Lenyanti terugvloei wanneer die Zambezi in vloed is.

Met Windhoek wat die skoonste stad in Afrika is, is bewys dat die Namibiërs inderdaad natuurliefhebbers is. Maar ons moet darem ook die hoed lig vir die organisasies en manne wat die waternood van diere in die Madumu-wildreservaat waargeneem en iets daaromtrent gedoen het. Dis fantasties!

Ons moet egter nooit vergeet nie van die rol van ons boerseuns destyds met die boor van boorgate waar basiskampe opgerig is!

GAWIE RICHTER

Bosveldsig, Modimolle