Court Watching

The Court Watching Brief is an initiative of the Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety to enhance its ability to perform oversight over the South African Police Service as mandated by Section 206 (3) of the Constitution. One of the challenges that was identified by the Court Watching Brief in the Western Cape province, was an increasing number of court cases that were either withdrawn or struck off the roll. To deal with this challenge, the Court Watching Brief (CWB) business plan was drafted and approved in April 2023 which operationalizes its’ service delivery plan for the 2023/24 financial year. The CWB covers all courts located within the six magisterial Districts of the Western Cape Region. The CWB identifies criminal cases to be monitored in support of the provincial vision and strategic objectives. These priority cases may include gender-based violence (GBV), murder, gang-related and related murder cases and criminal cases from the crime hot-spot areas. The primary objective of the CWB programme is to promote professional policing, police accountability and contribute towards increasing service delivery by the police. The oversight is performed by visiting all 56 Magisterial Courts in the Western Cape to monitor police conduct as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of the South African Police Service (SAPS). The primary objective of the Court Watching Brief is to contribute towards promoting professional policing and accountability in line with the National Development Plan. In order to make this work more efficient, they developed a solution that automated their processes and improved their offering.