BusinessLive reports that Basheer Waglay, Judge President of the Labour Appeal Court and the Labour Court of SA, says about 35% of matters referred to it should not be there at all and only serve to hamper the efficiency of the courts.
Indicating that Johannesburg had the most shortages of judges and courts, Waglay said. “We need double the number of judges and courts that we have [in Johannesburg] today … there are thousands of matters [to attend to].” He was speaking on Thursday during the annual labour conference of the CCMA. Waglay said delays in the Labour Court were cause for concern and the CCMA needed to be capacitated as it played a crucial role. “Perhaps the time has come to reconsider the Labour Relations Act (LRA). The labour community in SA has, at its disposal, one of the most progressive labour regimes in the world [but] if the law is not understood by the constituency it’s meant to serve ... then we seriously need to address the issue of simplifying the laws,” the judge president said during his address. It was reported in 2021 that the cash-strapped CCMA, which processes more than 200,000 cases a year, had been hurt by crippling budget cuts – set to reach about R500m in the medium term – from the Treasury. Waglay also spoke about the high levels of crime, corruption, unemployment and inequality and asked what good labour laws were if half of the nation was without work.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive
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