{"id":1639,"date":"2025-04-07T21:06:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T19:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2025-04-07T21:06:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T19:06:24","slug":"rebellion-of-the-lesser-magistrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/archives\/1639","title":{"rendered":"Rebellion of the lesser magistrate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When government fails, it falls on people that have any semblance of government authority to do actual justice.  Government in South Africa has failed, because its core function (justice) has failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The courts in South Africa are failing with the following specific failures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Absurdly long wait times for cases to be heard <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Absurd delays within the trial (defer, defer, defer)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Absurdly inappropriate punishments (various forms of prison)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Fundamentally, long delays awaiting trial are a result of the proliferation of crime by repeat-offenders, and particularly by bold evil doers that <strong>know<\/strong> they will not be punished.  If offenders, especially capital offenders, would be correctly punished (execution for capital crimes), then crime <strong>will<\/strong> reduce, and the wait time before trial must come down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, how then can the courts punish offenders correctly?  South African law does <strong>not<\/strong> provide <strong>any<\/strong> latitude to judges to do justice and inflict real punishment on criminals.  However, by this persistent failure to do justice, the courts agree that the law has no real force, and this lack of determination extends also to judges in the execution of their task &#8211; if they should actually do justice, the law is powerless to punish them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s an idea for the next capital case:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Take the condemned man into some isolated area (a cell, a yard), and have him chained to the wall, awaiting some administrative process.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Permit interested parties to interview the condemned man without any supervision two by two over the course of few hours.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Because of reasons, these visits are not recorded: cameras are broken, access logs are not working in critical areas, registers are not signed, any sound is obscured by other sound.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Every person that visits the condemned man may be equipped with stones (for their personal protection.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After a few hours have passed, the man, or his remains can be handed over to whatever organ of state cares for the protection of convicted men.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many reasons that a convicted person may find himself in an isolated place:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He was physically violent or difficult, and he was put somewhere to restrain him<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Someone had to go and do something, and could not supervise him<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Someone had to go and do something, and had to take him with<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He was handed over from one shift to another shift<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He needed to go for a ride, to get his cell phone, to fulfil a promise made at trial, to answer nature&#8217;s call, he bribed a guard to be left alone<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He made some form of escape, and was found hiding somewhere<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Just think about it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dude kills some girl because he is angry.  He is coming back for the rest of the family.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eventually dude gets to court (make it quick, please!).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The court finds dude guilty (two independent witnesses saw it &#8211; a very simple case)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The court sentences dude to 14 years in prison.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The court mentions informally that a<strong> capital sentence<\/strong> would have been appropriate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dude is put in the transfer yard and chained to the wall and floor for safety.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No cameras<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No witnesses<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Loud background noise is playing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Witnesses visit dude for a heart to heart chat, armed only with rocks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dude died suddenly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Witnesses leave, satisfied that justice has been served<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An inspection before prison transfer determines that dude perished from natural causes, and he goes straight to the cemetery.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is some kind of mix-up, and the investigation a docket hss no details.  Nobody cares.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dude is never a repeat offender.  Dude does not murder girl&#8217;s sister, brothers, father, mother or auntie.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If it all blows up, then there is some absurdly long investigation and a month long 24&#215;7 media circus to save injustice for The People&#x2122; &#8211; but there are no witnesses, and there is no forensic evidence.  It&#8217;s all circumstantial rubbish.  Dude&#8217;s family sues for wrongful death, and pays lots of money to a lawyer.  Everyone is happy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Absurd delays within a trial are the court&#8217;s way of saying that they have no interest in even the semblance of justice.  While these delays are the norm, we know there is no prospect that a court will dispose of delays <strong>and<\/strong> go against the written law of the land to get justice for victims.  Still, it is what must happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p> Because sentence against an evil work is not executed <strong>speedily<\/strong>, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When government fails, it falls on people that have any semblance of government authority to do actual justice. Government in South Africa has failed, because its core function (justice) has failed. The courts in South Africa are failing with the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/archives\/1639\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":null,"sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[88,125,50,4,332,190],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","tag-crime","tag-justice","tag-morality","tag-politics","tag-rant","tag-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1640,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcgill.org.za\/stuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}