Cape Town - Staff from the Cape Town Magistrate’s and regional courts took to the streets on Thursday to voice their anger over what they termed an “abuse of power” by magistrates sitting at the court.
Among the issues raised were the “minimising” and “belittling” of court staff, including clerks, interpreters and registrars.
Motlatsi Tsubane, who identified himself as an interpreter but preferred to be quoted as the representative of unionised staff, said there had been two incidents recently involving a sitting magistrate calling an interpreter to the witness box on immediate “contempt of court” allegations.
He said they constantly felt “embarrassed” and “verbally abused” in what is a public space – the courtroom. He said the interpreter had been sitting in at a trial, and when her phone rang unexpectedly the magistrate told her to give her phone over.
When she refused, Tsubane said, “the magistrate instructed the police to put her in the box”.
The staff member has been sentenced for contempt of court.
The reason for the protest, which lasted until 1pm with representatives from the Department of Justice present, was to bring light to the issues dealt with inside the courtroom.
“It’s a crying out loud to management to say enough is enough … magistrates are abusing their powers. There are good magistrates, but bad magistrates are overshadowing the good magistrates,” he said.
He said that at Cape Town Regional Court, a women-led court, the behaviour was shocking as it was woman-on-woman abuse.
When asked whether there had been efforts to come to a resolution and due process being followed regarding the filing of complaints with the Department of Justice, he said they had tried to resolve their issues in a cordial manner but, “everything has been swept under the carpet”.
Department of Justice spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said on Thursday that they were not privy to the information regarding the protest action.