Assessing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Complexities and Possibilities

Tuesday 20 Nov. 2012

ADV N JIBAActing National Director of Public Prosecutions

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General Prosecution Performance

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Vision & Mission Statement

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VisionJustice in our society so that people can live in freedom and

security

Mission

Guided by the Constitution, we in the National Prosecuting

Authority, ensure justice to the victims of crime by prosecuting

without fear, favour or prejudice, and by working with our partners

and the public to solve and prevent crime

JCPS Delivery

Agreement

NPA Annual / Strategic

Plan

Estimates of National

Expenditure

Regional Annual Plan

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Source Documents

NPA Strategic Outcome

Oriented Goal:To provide effective prosecution and related services

Goal Statement To ensure that all matters are dealt with speedily and

effectively

Purpose

Provide a coordinated prosecuting service that ensures

that justice is delivered to the victims of crime through

general and specialised prosecutions, remove the profit

from crime, and protect certain witnesses

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NPA Strategic Overview

Government Performance Management Framework• The South African government to performance measurement shifted

from Output Based to Outcomes Based

• Outcome for the JCPS is that “People Must Be and Feel Safer”

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NPA ENE Indicators

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Indicator Past Current

2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13

Number of court cases finalised - through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms

118 631 129 846 133 482 137 219

Number of criminal court cases with verdict  350 910 331 045 337 666 344 419

Conviction rate: per year-high courts-regional courts-district courts

 88% (1 083)74% (28 578)91% (281 290)

 87.8% (921)73% (27 385)91% (265 348)

 

 87% (939)

74% (27 933)87% (270 655)

 

  

87% (958)74% (28 491) 87% (276 068)

 

The NPA performance in respect of the ENE indicators is set out in the table below:

Conviction rates are:

A percentage of cases finalised with a guilty verdict (including Sec 57 of the CPA) divided by the number of cases finalised (i.e. excluding ADRM). Conviction rate is measured at the date of sentencing or verdict of not-guilty irrespective of the date when the plea was first entered.

• Only verdict cases are considered when conviction rate is calculated. Convictions in the mere sense are judgments by a court of law that a person is guilty as charged.

• Regarded as a quality indicator for NPA to indicate the number of trial cases in which a conviction was achieved.

• NPA has since inception of the current measuring system maintained a uniform approach to conviction rates. The achievements for all criminal courts are indicated below:

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Performance Indicator

Audited/Actual Performance Target 2012/13

Midterm Actual2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12

Overall conviction rate

86.3% 88.6% 88.3% 88.8% 88.0% 89.3%

269 173 310 951 293 673 280 658 306 288 151 345

Conviction rates are not: Successful prosecutions in relation to the number of crimes reported to the police.

• Successful prosecutions relates also to matters finalised through ADRM, matters dealt with ito CJA, decision dockets finalised without enrollment in a criminal court and admission of guilt payments.

• The core mandate of prosecutions is not to seek convictions at all cost but to ensure justice is done.

• SAPS measures CHARGES as reported crime and NPA measures CASES after enrollment which include multiple CHARGES. The comparison below extracted from the case audit conducted in Regional and High courts indicate the difference clearly:

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Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010

Cases 42 159 43 918 43 112 42 145 46 373 44 745

Counts 87 684 140 210 112 114 160 727 362 332 220 705

CONVICTION RATES:

  2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 GROWTH

CONVICTION RATE 85.7% 87.2% 87.8% 88.6% 88.7% 88.8% 3.1%

District Courts 87.4% 87.6% 88.1% 90.5% 90.7% 90.8% 3.4%

Regional Courts 72.3% 72.5% 73.7% 73.6% 73.4% 74.3% 2.0%

High Courts 83.4% 90.6% 86.3% 87.7% 87.8% 84.6% 1.2%

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Cases Finalised / Disposed• Cases finalised with ADRM include:

– Cases finalised through ADRM (Diversion, Informal Mediation);– Cases finalised with verdict (Sec 57A Admission of guilt, Convictions and Acquittals) Cases are finalised and prosecution cannot be reinstituted

• Cases disposed include:– Cases finalised and cases removed from the roll– Cases removed from the roll include:

• Withdrawals, • Warrants issued, • External Transfers, • Mental Referrals; and • Struck off roll

Cases are not finalised when removed from the roll and prosecution can be reinstituted

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Finalisation of cases

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Performance IndicatorAudited/Actual Performance

Target 2012/13

Midterm Actual

2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12

Number of criminal court cases finalised including ADRM

431 640 469 541 460 891 448 791 481 638 239 994

Additional work done:• In order to better reflect the efforts of the NPA it is necessary to include a wider range of matters

finalised in addition to the cases finalised through ADR and verdict cases.

• Criminal matters finalised in the reporting period include:

– Decision dockets which resulted in a decision not to prosecute (Nolle Prosequi),

– Matters where admission of guilt was determined by the prosecutor and it was paid (did not result

in a court case);

– Cases finalised through ADR (informal mediation, diversions etc),

– Cases finalised through verdict and appeals finalised in the High courts.

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Performance Overview of Public Prosecutions

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New Cases Cases Removed Total Finalised Finalised Verdict ADRM

2010/11 962 317 535 429 460 891 331 045 129 846

2011/12 897 842 488 564 448 793 316 098 132 695

NEW CASES, 897 842

CASES REMOVED,

488 564

FINALISED VERDICT, 316 098

ADRM, 132 695CASE MANAGEMENT: ALL COURTS: 2011/12

2011/12 INPUT OUTPUT: CASES DISPOSED

FORUM NEW CASES

CASES FINALISED CASES REMOVED FROM THE ROLL

ADRM(incl. CJA) VERDICT CONVICTION 

RATE

WITHDRAWN/WARRANTS/TRANSFERS/

STRUCK OFF ROLL/MENTAL OBSERVATIONS

HIGH COURTS 944  0 1 138 84.6% 137

REGIONAL COURTS 76 210 1 808 38 600 74.3% 44 111

DISTRICT COURTS 820 688 130 887 276 360 90.8% 444 316

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Performance Overview of Public Prosecutions

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Cases removed from the roll: 2011/12FORUM  2010/11 % of National 2011/12 % of National Progress

HIGH COURT 175 0.03% 137 0.03% -21.71%

REGIONAL COURT 46 550 8.69% 44 111 9.03% -5.24%

DISTRICT COURT 488 704 91.27% 444 316 90.94% -9.08%

ALL 535 429 100.00% 488 564 100.00% -8.75%

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Financial Year Withdrawals Warrant Issued External Transfers Mental Referrals Struck off Roll Total

2010/11 224 983 167 878 49 039 1142 92 387 535 429

%  42.0% 31.4% 9.2% 0.2% 17.3% 100%

2011/12 197 605 147 919 46 351 1651 95 038 488 564

% 40.4% 30.3% 9.5% 0.3% 19.5% 100%

Progress -1.6% -1.1% 0.3% 0.1% 2.2%

Plea Agreements Sec 105A Plea and Sentence Agreements are measured on the number of agreements and

counts involved.

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2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Apr – Sep 2012/13

Agreements 990 538 659 662

Counts 3 673 2 034 6 882 4 031

Counts per Agreement 3.7 3.8 10.4 6.1

Workload analysis: Lower Courts

• 6.9% (70 630) increase in formal bail applications during FY 2011/12 compared to the 66 046 applications dealt with during 2010/11. Valuable court time is spent on bail applications, which could have been used for trial-ready matters.

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INPUT: PREVIOUS OS ROLL/ NEW CASES/ DECISION DOCKETS RECEIVED 

FORUM CURRENT STAFF COMPONENT CASES / DOCKETS  CASES/DOCKETS

PER PPCASES/DOCKETS 

PER PP P/MCASES/DOCKETS 

PER PP P/D

Lower Courts 2 214 989 105 446.8 148.9 8.3

OUTPUT: CASES FINALISED / DECISION DOCKETS DEALT WITH  - MIDTERM 2012.13

FORUM CURRENT STAFF COMPONENT

CASES / DOCKETS 

CASES/DOCKETS PER PP

CASES/DOCKETS PER PP P/M

CASES/DOCKETS PER PP P/D

Lower Courts 2 214 503 125 227.2 75.7 4.2

Workload analysis:

The following is disregarded by ISS:

• Work done outside the court – decision dockets etc

• Complexity of a case – organised crime

• Multiple dockets per case and multiple charges and accused per case

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Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010

Cases 42 159 43 918 43 112 42 145 46 373 44 745

Counts 87 684 140 210 112 114 160 727 362 332 220 705

Counts per case 2.1 3.2 2.6 3.8 7.8 4.9

Accused 62 804 66 519 65 840 65 717 74 760 73 845

Acc. per case 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.6 1.6 1.7

NPA Data on Input and Output

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  2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 growth

New cases in court 1 117 879 1 117 488 1 084 137 1 069 724 1 062 497 1 037 309 1 058 210 1 044 346 962 317 897 842 -19.68%

Cases disposed  956 509 1 182 163 1 130 006 1 168 936 1 101 395 1 043 373 1 070 435 1 065 292 996 320 937 357 -2.00%

Cases removed from the roll

534 171 767 675 730 040 757 519 722 361 655 029 638 795 595 751 535 429 488 564 -8.54%

Finalised cases 422 338 414 488 399 966 411 417 379 034 388 344 431 640 469 541 460 891 448 793 6.26%

Cases remaining in the system

188 691 185 423 206 005 198 990 206 508 232 518 234 606 230 477 218 660 200 532 6.28%

Clearance rate -14.4% 5.8% 4.2% 9.3% 3.7% 0.6% 1.2% 2.0% 3.5% 4.4% 18.8%

Success rate 44.2% 35.1% 35.4% 35.2% 34.4% 37.2% 40.3% 44.1% 46.3% 47.9% 3.68%

NPA Data on Cases Finalised

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  2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 growth

Finalised cases 422 338 414 488 399 966 411 417 379 034 388 344 431 640 469 541 460 891 448 793 6.3%

Verdict cases 407 530 396 536 381 020 373 995 334 551 326 506 349 883 350 910 331 045 316 098 -22.4%

Convictions 332 056 330 146 322 147 322 687 286 861 284 620 307 089 310 951 293 673 280 658 -15.5%

ADRM 14 808 17 952 18 946 37 422 44 483 61 838 81 757 118 631 129 846 132 695 796.1%

Conviction rate 81.5% 83.3% 84.5% 86.3% 85.7% 87.2% 87.8% 88.6% 88.7% 88.8% 7.3%

NPA Data on Court Utilisation

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2002/03 03/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12Estimate growth

Ave Hours 04:09 04:08 04:07 04:06 03:58 03:39 03:50 03:46 03:34 03:30 -00:39

Total Court Days

251 739 243 687 238 347 240 133 239 566 246 508 255 587 256 821 265 269 267 750 6.4%

Total Courts in Session

18 724 18 744 18 858 18 801 18 778 19 168 19 459 19 773 20 080 20 251 8.2%

Performance Overview

Compared to the previous year:

High conviction rates maintained in all courts: overall conviction rate

was 88.8%

Increase in number of cases finalised through ADRM by 2.2%, from

129 846 in 2010/11 to 132 695 in 2011/12

All courts maintained a positive clearance ratio – disposing of more

cases than enrolled

12.2% reduction in number of cases withdrawn

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Performance Overview (Cont.)

The courts on the Backlog Court Project finalised 15 886 backlog cases

which contributed to the reduction in backlog of cases – at the end of the

year the backlog was 34 926, 5.7% less than the 37 034 in 2010/11

6.4% more dockets were received for decision. 650 677 dockets were

dealt with which is a 5.4% increase

6.9% (70 630) increase in formal bail applications compared to the

66 046 applications dealt with during 2010/11

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Thank you!