The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

A reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question has revealed that South Africa's equality courts are understaffed with magistrates and clerks. Any court, at any level, requires a full complement of staff, both as judicial and administrative officers. Given the information that the minister of justice and constitutional development, Jeff Radebe, has revealed, we must question the commitment of the Zuma administration to the operation of equality courts.

There are 386 magistrates courts functioning as equality courts. Yet, according to the reply, only 247 have clerks allocated to them and only 263 have magistrates allocated to them. That means there are more than 100 equality courts without judicial officers.

A copy of the reply is available upon request.

The purpose of the equality courts is to adjudicate in those matters where an individual's dignity, as per the right granted by the constitution, has been infringed upon, thus in essence violating that person. This is usually on the basis of discrimination or hate speech but includes other, more broad infringements as well.

Although we may disagree to a degree with the current administration, and those past, on the full sway that equality courts should have over free speech, we believe that individuals should always have sufficient recourse to the law as a means of preserving rights.

Given past administrations' vehemence for the establishment of these courts, and the continuation of their policies in the Zuma administration, we would have expected the justice department to ensure that they are adequately staffed. However, as is tragically so often the case, rhetoric does not match action.

I shall be asking the minister whether the administration in which he serves still has a commitment to these courts and the delicate interplay of rights for which they allow and if so, what steps are to be taken to ensure that there are enough magistrates and clerks to serve in them.