Brigitte Mabandla Justice

Brigitte Mabandla | Justice College Memoir

Background and History The Historic Legal Training Landscape

The evolution of the legal landscape in South Africa is broad as is the area of education and training for judicial officers, which also changed over time. From the first appointment of an official as landdrost in 1685 until 1917, no formal minimum legal qualification was required for appointment as a judicial officer. The only requirement was that “he” should be “a fit and proper person”. In 1917, the requirement of a minimum legal qualification of a“Staatsdienst Lager Wetsexamen” or equivalent qualification was instituted countrywide as a prerequisite for the office of magistrate. No formal training was, however, offered. For many years the only qualificar tion required of a person to become a South African magistrate was that he had to be “a fit and proper person”. A minimum legal qualification for a magistrate, namely the Public Service Law Examination, or equivalent examination, was only introduced country-wide. During the years 1930 to 1932, two senior officials at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court offered some guidance to junior officials in criminal procedure and the law of evidence – this was a minimal form of training that would often last no longer than half an hour a day. Other sporadic efforts of in-service training followed in Johannesburg and other larger centres but did not materialise formally. At the insistence of the Department of Justice the University of South Africa, in 1951, instituted the Public Service Law Examination as minimum legal qualification for appointment as magistrate. (In later years this academic qualification was also introduced at other universities and aspirant magistrates further acquired the additional option of obtaining either the Dipl fur or B fur.) The Establishment of Justice College In April 1948, the Department of Justice initiated an in-service training programme aimed at the attainment of a minimum legal qualification and practical functional training for prosecutors at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. Officials of the Department acted as part-time lecturers. The training of prosecutors was extended to magistrates when the first official course for criminal court magistrates was presented at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court in February 1953. Training programmes for Court Interpreters and staff of the Master of the Supreme Court followed in 1954 and 1956 respectively. “In terms of reg 3( 1 )(f)(i) ofthe regulations published in GN R 361 of 11 March 1994 under s6 of the Magistrates Act 90 of 1993, no person shall be appointed as a magistrate unless he or she has, inter alia, “successfully completed an applicable course (the duration, content and extent of which shall be specified by the Chief of the Justice College after consultation with the (Magistrates) Commission to the satisfaction of the Chief of the Justice College or a person designated by him”).

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Brigitte Mabandla | Justice College | Memoir