Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola has promised to review the Criminal Procedure Act, No 51 of 1977, as he believes it is flawed.

He spoke at the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union Policing Indaba, on Thursday, where he said the Act fails victims in modern society.

He explained that the Criminal Procedure Act was flawed and at times inhibited crime reporting as people were told to report crimes in the areas where the crime took place, adding that issues of cybercrime were not addressed.

Lamola said these were some of the things that would be reviewed in the Act.

He stated that a complete overhaul of the Act was in the pipeline.

He further said government systems must be integrated with the criminal justice system.

For example, Lamola said the Home Affairs biometric system must be accessible to the police’s systems, and by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), which he believed should be able to access police information.

He said, ideally, an integrated justice system should work seamlessly to ensure prosecutions.

Lamola said at the moment the system operates at 30% capacity instead of 100%.

He warned that the blame game among the law enforcement agencies would not solve South Africa’s crime challenges.

“If we [are] able to fix the engine of the Criminal Justice Cluster in terms integration, we believe we can be effective in the fight against crime in this country... There is no reason why the NPA must only celebrate convictions. When the crime statistics are released and sent, they must be able to say how many people were arrested and out of those people [how many] were prosecuted successfully and convicted through the system,” said Lamola.  

He pointed out that there was a disjuncture when looking at the arrests and prosecutions, saying the numbers did not add up.

He said the challenges faced by prosecutors could be easily resolved and added that if the problem was training within the NPA then it should be dealt with.

Lamola said he was of the view that the issues started at the investigation level in the justice system.

He believes that when “we are able to share the same process we could get somewhere”.

He said prosecutors and investigators should work together. 

Lamola said there was correlation between inequality and violent crimes. He claimed that in countries such as the US, high levels of crime only flourished in poor communities.

Lamola promised the gathering that he was passionate about ensuring that all prisoners who were under the age of 35 be forced to go to school and acquire skills.

“These are the ones who trouble the facilities when they leave. What are we bringing to society if these inmates are unable to even weld. By the time I leave office I would have succeeded in that law. A revolution is in full swing within the correctional facilities,” concluded Lamola.