The Use of Pre-Trial Conferences in South African Criminal Matters

Abstract

In 2014 South Africa’s criminal justice legal system was under the international spotlight with regards to two major criminal cases. The first being, the Oscar Pistorius trial and secondly the honeymoon murder case of Anni Dewani. The use and analysis of forensic evidence took centre stage in both these matters. The analyses of evidence during the trials were time consuming and ultimately left more questions in the Judges mind than answers. If the analysis of evidence by leading attorneys and prosecutors are failing then one dares not think what is happening in areas where expert evidence is not affordable or accessible. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa clearly envisions a justice system that allowed the poorest of person to access courts in terms of Section 34. The Constitution further strengthened this provision by creating section 35 in the Bill of Rights, in which it states that an accused must be given a fair trial within a reasonable time and without delay. The criminal courts ranging from District to High Court levels are sitting on daily basis where they cannot hear all matters and this subsequently places a burden on the prosecuting authority to deal with the matters timeously. A practice used in the United Kingdom and Australia are Pre-Trials for criminal matters. South Africa has a system of Pre-trials but is only used for civil matters. Pre-trial conferences in terms of rule 37 of the High Court states: “that the parties have seriously endeavoured to narrow the issues…; that there are no outstanding requests for admissions or particularity and no outstanding requests for documents; that, where applicable, the experts have met and produced a joint minute; that the trial is ready to commence immediately and run continuously to a conclusion, then the matter will be ripe for allocation…”. The aim of this paper is to focus on jurisdictions where they have promulgated law to handle criminal pre-trial conferences and how, if they are successful. The paper will seek to provide a framework on how pre-trials can be adopted from civil litigation to speedily deal with criminal matters and what effect it will have on the South African legal and court system.