Livelihoods at stake warns Mayor
An extraordinary show of unity all but blew away justice minister Ronnie Lamola in the city hall in Makhanda this week. He was there, along with a delegation from the Moseneke Commission, to hear why the Makana community is so vehemently opposed to the proposed move of the seat of the Eastern Cape High Court from Makhanda to Bhisho. According to a study, if the seat moves, the court in Makhanda will close completely in five years due to a lack of work and the almost unanimous call from close to 300 people packed the city hall on Thursday July 13 was a resounding ‘No!’.
In a team effort that impressed the minister and his delegation, the High Court Action Committee, Makana Municipality, the National Arts Festival, Rhodes University, the legal community, the church and civil society brought out their hard hitters. Among those who addressed the Minister Rhodes University Vice Chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela, who is chair of the High Court Action Committee, business forum chairperson Richard Gaybba and MP and ANC/Cosatu alliance representative Vumile Lwana, also a former mayor of Makana. In addition to representing the Makana Civil Society Coalition (MCSC), Mpumezo Ngesi also spoke on behalf of former SCA President Judge Lex Mpati. Action SA provincial leader Athol Trollip weighed in. Others who spoke included Young Communist League representative Mthumhle Kepe, SANCO’s Xolani Simakuhle and educationist Gerald Accom.
Speaker after speaker was unequivocal about the socio-economic harm that removing the high court would trigger.
The interim report of the Committee on the rationalisation of areas under the jurisdiction of the divisions of the High Court of South Africa and Judicial Establishments (the ‘Moseneke Commission’) was published late last year. Its intention is to change apartheid era judicial boundaries and align court systems with the post-1994 communities they are intended to serve. The purpose of the rationalisation process, the report states, is to improve access to justice. The interim report had gone into details about distances, populations and the number of stakeholders in each area. “These will be the parameters for our decision when we receive the final report,” Lamola said.
Makana Mayor Yandiswa Vara was the first to refer to an economic impact study on the likely effect of the proposed move. The study, by Economics Professor Emeritus Geoff Antrobus warned that legal firms would close and that this would have a domino effect. More than 5000 direct jobs would be lost and a further 25 000 dependents would be without an income, pushing unemployment in the Makana municipal area up to 50% – beyond the national average of 33.6%.
Vibrant civil society
This would not only impact the town itself, Vara said. “Our economy is an important backbone of the district and the province,” Vara said. “Makhanda is one of the oldest cities in the country. It has historic prominence in the judiciary, education, and an active and vibrant civil society.
“We understand that the rectification process is an effort towards social transformation and transformation of the judiciary. But unemployment in Makana is 45%. Removing the high court would cause further social instability and hypercontestation of employment.”
Vara noted the study’s findings that the high court is one of the biggest drivers of the local economy, including spinoffs such as the hospitality and the retail sector.
She spoke of the town’s well organised and active citizenry “that seeks to retain our local economic contributors”. That included the second largest military base in the country after Tempe.
She warned of the loss of not only jobs, but also intellectual and professional capacity.
Makhanda had just been included in the small town revitalisation programme of the Office of the Premier. It aimed to actively address the infrastructure backlog in order to attract further investment and continue to attract students to the town.
“The stakeholders here are 100% behind the High Court Action Committee’s campaign,” Vara emphasised.
Support services
Lamola, in his introductory address, was at pains to point out that there was no intention to move the court itself – only the seat. “That would just mean moving the Judge President and some judges,” he said.
However Mabizela, who spoke next, pointed out that it was not only two judges who would leave Makhanda; it was a vast range of support and essential services that would go with the moving of the seat.
He said he was pleased that the Minister had taken the time to meet with local stakeholders and understand the context of the high court – “the integral role that the high court and the seat play in every aspect of the economy of Makhanda”.
“We are firmly of the view that access to justice is critical,” Mabizela said. “But that does not mean imposing a life of hardship unnecessarily.”
The High Court Action Committee, which had met earlier with Lamola in the Council Chamber, proposed an alternative map to the one mooted by the Moseneke Commission. Mabizela explained that while it increases other jurisdictions, Makhanda would not experience the “devastation in human life” that it would if the seat were relocated. Mabizela said the Committee proposed that the seat should enjoy concurrent jurisdictional power.
The Makhanda Circle of Unity’s Sisesakhe Ntlabezo spoke about the active engagement of Makhanda’s institutions and citizens to overcome persistent difficulties in the town.
“The community of Makhanda has fought for decades just to keep the city alive,” he said.
He asked the Minister how he would reconcile what he had heard that day with the final report once he received it, and how his engagements there would be reflected in the final decision.
The business forum’s Gaybba was the first of several speakers to note that access to justice was not just about geographical location, but quality of service.
Trollip said moving the court would be the town’s “death warrant”. The ActionSA provincial leader led a deputation from the region including business, university and community representatives from Makana and surrounding municipalities. He emphasised the importance of decentralisation and separation of legislative, judicial and executive seats.
“Unemployment is one of this Cities greatest challenges, as it is in this province, the desperate search for employment is dislocating families and communities already and this planned relocation will compound this misery… You want Rob Peter to pay Paul and concentrate all of this in one place at the collective prejudice of this city, municipality and community,” Trollip said.
In his closing comments, Lamola noted that a broad spectrum of the community had been engaged in the discussions about the high court – “This is not just political,” he said.
Lamola said this was the first such engagement he had taken part in concerning the countrywide rationalization of the courts.
“It is because of the unique nature of the submissions we received that I came here,” he said.
Sarah Baartman district mayor Deon de Vos likewise expressed appreciation for the Makhanda community’s unity of purpose.
“This engagement showed that we can be united and respectful to each other,” De Vos said. “I will be pleased if there can be the same unity expressed here in dealing with our other challenges of unemployment, inequality, poverty and landlessness. I hope we can use and nurture this unity to deal with other challenges.”
Lamola said he expects to receive the final report of the Moseneke Commission in late August or early September.
“When that happens, we will have to make a decision,” he said. “We will not ignore the economic impact on this town,” Lamola said. “But the courts system must be rationalised. The key driver of this decision will be access to justice.”
Submissions regarding the proposed move of the seat of the high court to Bhisho can be sent to:
The Makhanda High Court Action Committee can be reached at makhandahighcourtaction@gmail.com
- An earlier version of this article appeared in the Daily Dispatch.
