Gov claims progress has been made in fight against corruption

Briefing the media, the cluster - which includes the Police Ministry, State Security, Home Affairs and Justice and Constitutional Development - said the fight against corruption has seen more people arrested for fraudulent and illicit activities.

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"In total, 522 allegations of serious corruption were recorded by the end of June 2013. A total of 791 persons are currently under criminal, financial and/or forensic investigation," said Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe.

Of these, a total of 92 people received or potentially received R5m or more in illicit benefits.

There are pre-trial proceedings in 98 priority cases against 287 accused at present, whilst actual trial proceedings have been initiated against 159 accused.

"In this regard, 41 accused persons have been convicted, two acquitted and charges were withdrawn against 25 persons. Within the JCPS Cluster, for the year to end September 2013, 228 people were successfully convicted for corruption related crimes (according to NPA statistics)," said Radebe.

Meanwhile, for the second quarter of the current financial year, a 69.6% trial ready case docket rate was achieved. The JCPS target for the trial ready docket rate was set at 35%, to be achieved by 2014.

The total backlog of cases at the end of September 2013 (for all courts) stood at a new record low of 26 233 cases, which is 24.7% better than the target set for the end of quarter two of 32,117 cases.

The 86 backlog courts disposed of 13,778 cases for the period April to end September 2013.

The regional and district backlog courts have removed in total 96,432 cases from the court rolls since 1 November 2006 when they started, until the end of September 2013.

The country currently has 35 Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) that are fully functional at 51 sites. TCCs are one-stop facilities that have been introduced as a critical part of South Africa's anti-rape strategy, aiming to reduce secondary trauma for the victim, improve conviction rates and reduce the cycle time for finalising cases.

The conviction rate in the prosecution of sexual offences reported at TCCs for the second quarter of this year is 65.8%, which is an improvement of 5.2% compared to last year.

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In August, the dedicated Sexual Offences Court in Butterworth was re-launched. The cluster, said Radebe, has identified 57 Sexual Offences Courts to be operationalised during the current financial cycle.

Meanwhile, the NPA's Asset Forfeiture Unit had in the first six months of the year paid a total of R149 million into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA) and to victims of crime.

In terms of the law, the monies and properties in the account may be used to give financial help to law enforcement agencies or any other institution or organisation set up to assist victims of crime.

"This is 170% above its target of R55m and higher than it has ever achieved in a full year," noted Radebe.