The Judiciary says a programme set up to allow retired Justices of the Constitutional Court to assist with addressing the backlog of the country's apex court, could be scrapped.
Initially, the Judiciary announced the appointment of retired Justices Zak Yacoob and Johan Froneman were for rendering support services to the court.
Cape Times reported that the decision to not use retired justices followed criticism from several NGOs and questions about the constitutionality of the decision, however, it was clarified that Yacoob and Froneman would be volunteering and would not take part in the adjudication of any matter.
In a statement on Friday, the judiciary said the programme was at a trial stage and was to be reviewed in order to determine whether it was working and effective in addressing the backlog.
"The programme had been introduced to deal with the backlog of new applications which results in delays in disposing of new applications.
"The programme was aimed at improving the quality of the service that the Constitutional Court renders to the public. The backlogs of new applications came about as a result of huge increase in matters that are brought to the Constitutional Court since the expansion of the Court's jurisdiction about 10 years ago," the Judiciary said.
It added that the idea was that the preparation of memoranda by retired Justices of the Constitutional Court in new applications would enable the serving Justices to devote more of their time to the preparation of judgments.
"In his response, the Chief Justice indicated that, if it was found during the review that the programme did not work or was not effective, it would be discontinued, in which case the concerns expressed or questions raised by some of the organisations about the programme would fall away," the Judiciary said.
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