Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)
The National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) is a very important strategy accepted by Cabinet in attempt to combat crime. The NCPS forms the basis of all actions and strategies to be taken by the cross-cutting Departments involved in the criminal justice system. Due to investigations flowing from the NCPS it was established that one of the more serious blockages in the criminal justice system is the low level of experience of inter alia prosecutors. As part of the Department's responsibility to provide experienced prosecutors, the Department started one of its Premier projects called the "Fast tracking of Candidate Prosecutors". The purpose of this project was the additional employment, on contract, of 100 candidate prosecutors in order to provide one year's intensive and accelerated on the job training to these prospective prosecutors, with a possibility of permanent employment thereafter. By this means a distribution of experience will be ensured.
The project was undertaken at 11 centres since June 1997, in terms of which the legally qualified candidate prosecutors received the the 11 magistrate's offices under the personal supervision of tutors who have acquired extensive experience in the South African criminal courts.
In addition to the opportunity which this project created for the fast tracking of 100 prosecutors, with the objective if improving the level of experience of prosecutors, it also created an opportunity for the Department to promote representability in respect of prosecutors. These opportunities are to the benefit of the administration of justice as well as for each community.
The training of these candidate prosecutors focussed mainly on:
The Department was notified during September 1997 that two of the trainee prosecutors, one at Vanderbijlpark and one at Pretoria, both died in motor vehicle accidents. Due to the progress already made with the formal training, additional candidates could not be appointed.
The training was a huge success and the 98 candidate prosecutors were all permanently appointed in the Department on 1 June 1998. It is evident that the prosecutors have been exposed to training to the extent that they will manage in any court or administration situation. These prosecutors are expected to have a significant impact on the local crime scene.
The allocation of prosecutors to the nine Provinces are as follows:
Gauteng 24 Eastern Cape 10 Kwa Zulu-Natal 22 Free State Province 8 Mapumalanga 4 Northern Cape 3 Northern Province 3 North West Province 4 Western Cape 20
ISSUED BY THE CHIEF DIRECTORATE: COMMUNICATION SERVICES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
9 JUNE 1998 PRETORIA
ENQUIRIES: HEINRICH AUGUSTYN / AMANDA HAASBROEK TEL: (012) 323 9302 X2190 / X2184 FAX: (012) 321 8291