Big brass note spike in sexual offences, assault at grand opening of Plett Magistrates’ Court
The Magistrates’ Court in New Horizons was officially opened on Thursday, May 2 by Justice and Correctional Services minister; advocate Michael Masutha – TIMOTHY TWIDLE reports
A slew of dignitaries attended the opening of Pletts court precinct last Thursday, including Public Works Minister Thembelani Nxesi, Director-General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJCD) Vusi Madonsela, deputy director of the National Prosecuting Authority advocate Nicolette Bell, regional DOJCD head advocate Hishaam Mohammed, judge Nathan Erasmus, members of the judiciary, and councillors as well as directors and staff of Bitou Municipality.
They were joined by representatives of Plett’s diverse communities – a total of some 400 people.
Bitou executive mayor Peter Lobese delivered a short speech of welcome.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming. I am as excited as all of you today,” he said.
“Tliis court is an outcome of the Coming Together initiative that was launched in Bitou in 2007. Thank you, minister Masutha. Plettenberg Bay is indebted to you.”
In declaring the court open, Masutha said: “The opening of this state of the art Magistrates’ Court in New Horizons could not have come at a better time.
“The court will alleviate the hardships endured by local residents, who up until now have had to travel 32 kilometres to the court in Knysna, to seek justice.
“The court has been built with the future in mind. A total of nine courtrooms include four district courts, two family courts, a civil/ equality court, and two regional courts.
“As is standard nowadays, the second regional court has been fitted with infrastructure to handle sexual offences. The dedicated sexual offences court is one of 80 country-wide that are in place to deal with the high levels of sexual and gender-based violence that occur throughout the country.”
The minister continued by saying that statistics provided by the Plettenberg Bay police showed a spike in the number of sexual offences that have occurred in this area recently, with the number of incidents of rape have increased from 21 to 39 in the past year, and the number of attempted sexual offences has risen from three to seven.
“There has also been an increase in the number of assaults with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, from 193 to 243, over the same period of time,” he said.
The facilities of the new court, which was built by local companies over a period of three years at a cost of R3.l4-million, include a training room, two libraries, nine consulting rooms for legal practitioners, children’s waiting rooms, a first aid room, a cash hall, and record rooms.
At the close of proceedings, a short speech of thanks was given by alderman Lulama Mvimbi, a former executive mayor of Bitou.
The mission of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is to provide access to justice for all, and to this end, 40 new courts have been constructed and 19 existing courts have been extensively refurbished throughout the country since 1994.
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