MORE incidents of magistrates participating in a go-slow were reported on Tuesday although the office of the chief justice still referred to them as "isolated incidents".
The office of the chief justice continued to monitor lower courts across the country on Tuesday, after the Judicial Officers Association of South Africa (Joasa) promised to embark on a go-slow, with magistrates hearing only postponements.
Joasa, which represents about half of South Africa’s magistrates, has rejected the 5.5% increase recommended by the independent commission for the remuneration of public office bearers and President Jacob Zuma, and approved by the National Assembly.
The Association of Regional Court Magistrates of South Africa does not support the industrial action, but also wants a review of the salary structure of magistrates.
In a statement, the office of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said that, as of lunch time on Tuesday, there "continued to be no major disruptions to court proceedings in the majority" of the regional and district magistrates courts that were monitored by the Magistrates Commission.
But there were some "isolated incidents" including:
In KwaZulu-Natal in Port Shepstone, one of five magistrates postponed all cases on his roll while in the family court, the two presiding magistrates dealt only with urgent matters pertaining to women and children and postponed all others.
In Ixopo, the magistrates were postponing all criminal matters but were dealing with bail applications. The family courts were dealing only with urgent matters.
In Pinetown and in Madadeni, most cases were being postponed, while in Nquthu the criminal courts were only doing postponements.
At the Randburg Magistrate’s Court the situation remained "the same" as on Monday in that none of the 12 permanently appointed magistrates who support the protest action were doing trials. They were, however, at work carrying out other judicial functions.
Acting magistrates were hearing criminal trials in Randburg but no civil trials have proceeded since Monday, said the chief justice’s office.
"However, there were no negative impacts on case-flow management that were recorded," said the office of the chief justice.
In the North West, the magistrates’ protest action was limited to courts in Moretele and Odi. But details were sketchy at lunchtime.
In the Northern Cape, participation in the go-slow was limited to the court in Barkley West where three trial cases were postponed on Monday.
Meanwhile, like a number of other legal organisations, the National Democratic Lawyers (Nadel) also came out against the go-slow on Tuesday, saying the independence of the judiciary would be "negatively affected by overt expressions of discord between the magistracy and other arms of government".
"Their impartiality will be put in doubt. As a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy no element of the judiciary should put its impartiality at risk," said Nadel.
However Nadel said that, in taking this position, it was not "expressing any judgment" on whether the magistrates’ grievances were legitimate.
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