9 March 2000
The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Dr Penuell Maduna, MP, will officially open a New Wing of courtrooms at Bellville Magistrate’s Court today, 10 March 2000 at 11H30.
This New Wing consists of 11 additional court suites which serve as a direct response to previous accommodation needs at the Bellville Magistrate’s Court. The entire building has cost the Department of Justice over R 11 million to complete and has been operating since February this year. This is clearly in line with one of the pillars of Justice Vision 2000, i.e Access to Justice.
The event will also mark the launch of the first Tax Court pilot project in the Western Cape. A first Tax Court pilot project in the country was launched into the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court last year.
The new Tax Court is also housed in the New Wing of the Bellville Magistrate’s Court and was established through a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and the South African Revenue Services.
The tax court is manned by Magistrates, prosecutors and administrative staff who are specially trained to deal with tax matters and legislation. Since its operation last month, the tax court has dealt with an average of 30 cases a day.
This comes as a relief for the criminal courts system as ordinary courts cannot allocate much of their time to hear cases on tax offences. Thus it is hailed as another positive impact in dealing with case backlog, dispense justice closer to the people, government departments and increase access to the courts for witnesses and the accused.
The Bellville Magistrate’s Court was chosen as the suitable area to pilot the tax court because most of tax related cases in the Western Cape were from the Bellville magisterial district. The area of jurisdiction of the tax court is now only confined on the Bellville central district.
It is hoped that this initiative, between the Department of Justice and SARS, will eventually give effect to the fiscal legislation which empowers the SARS to collect money owed to the State in order to uplift the lives of the poor and provide basic services to the people.
ISSUED JOINTLY BY COMMUNICATION SERVICES OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICES
9 MARCH 2000
CAPE TOWN
ALL ENQUIRIES:
Joseph Mohajane / Kaizer Kganyago
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
Tel : (021) 462 5471
Fax : (021) 462 3141
Cell : 082 652 1845 / 082 466 3053
OR
Fanie Zulu
South African Revenue Services
Cell : 082 451 0457