NPA Annual Report 2011/2012 - National Prosecuting Authority

NATIONAL PROSECUTING AUTHORITY – VOTE 24 For the year ended 31 March 2012The Lower and High Courts maintained a positive clearance ratio 1 during 2011/12. A total of 897 842new cases were enrolled and 930 932 cases were disposed 2 of, which represents a positive clearancerate of 3.7%. As the NPA strives to deliver justice to the community, a total of 33 090 more cases weredisposed of than received.The enhanced focus of the courts on serious crime has resulted in improved finalisation of cases by boththe High and Regional Courts. Increases of 4.7% and 3.1%, respectively, were achieved. Furthermore,the Regional Courts managed to improve the conviction rate in an effort to curb serious crime. The courtsalso excelled in the prosecution of trio crimes by finalising 232.1% more cases compared to the numberreported in the previous financial year.Better screening processes, including the implementation of the screening protocol, further resulted ina reduction of 12.2% in the number of cases withdrawn and assisted in the enrolment of mainly trialreadymatters. Better screening contributed to a reduced inflow of new cases, as cases in which thereis no prima facie case, are not enrolled. In total: 6.4% more dockets than in 2010/11 were referred fordecision and a total of 650 677 dockets were dealt with during 2011/12, which represents an increaseof 5.4% on the previous year.An increased use of delivering justice by means of ADRM 3 was achieved by increasing the number ofcases finalised in this manner with 2.2%, namely, from 129 846 in 2010/11 to 132 693 in 2011/12.High conviction rates were maintained. An average of 1 685 High and Lower Courts finalised 316 098cases with a verdict, achieving an 88.8% conviction rate. This is slightly higher than the conviction rateachieved during 2010/11, although 4.5% fewer verdict cases were finalised compared to the total of 331045 verdict cases finalised during 2010/11. This reduction must be viewed against the steady decline incourt utilisation, as well as the 6.9% (70 630) increase in formal bail applications compared to the 66 046applications dealt with during 2010/11. Valuable court time is spent on bail applications, which couldhave been used for trial-ready matters.The courts reduced the backlog of cases through the prioritisation and proper preparation of cases. Aremarkable reduction of 5.7% was achieved from the 37 034 cases recorded at the end of 2010/11. TheBacklog Court Project assisted this achievement as a total of 15 886 cases were finalised by the backlogcourts during the reporting period._________________________________1 The clearance ratio equals the number of new cases received divided by the number of cases disposed (excluding cases diverted before enrolmentin terms of the CJA).2 Total number of criminal court cases and cases under investigation disposed of in the reporting period. These include court cases finalised byverdict and sentence (including section 57A of the Criminal Procedure Act), or through the use of alternatives such as diversion or informal mediation,withdrawn, warrants of arrest issued, transferred from the court roll, and struck from the roll irrespective of the date of enrolment of the case.3ADRM include diversions after enrolment, matters diverted in terms of the Child Justice Act (CJA) and informal mediations.12