• Priscilla Monama
• 03 Sep 2025

Pioneering, implementing justice the technology way

Remarkable strides have been made in the quest towards an effective South African justice system since the technology visions of some 30 years ago – an era of modernising the next-generation technology of the time, rapidly evolving it into the user-orientated tools that formed the foundation for the world we know today.

In an age of innovators, limitations were restricted only to the imagination; experimentation started making visions possible using technology to do what we treat as commonplace today. Opportunities to positively apply technology were already seen then in arenas as remote healthcare, education and safety.

As South Africa’s crime rate escalated and GBVF’s prevalence became increasingly apparent, the need for an end-to-end, cohesive and collaborative justice system was one of the earliest visions, highlighting the need, holistically, for it to become more victim-friendly and close gaps in the process of dealing with criminals, including the repeat perpetrators who would simply evade incarceration after their release by travelling into a different province or to homes where they felt shielded from the law.

Today’s Department of Justice demonstrates how to leverage from the strengths of cluster units to provide the beginning-to-end justice platform to process perpetrators and care for their victims.

Noteworthy is that attention on criminal cases versus civil matters has around a 60% and 40% split respectively, underlining the recognition that civil matters are also an integral focus of the Integrated Justice System (IJS) members.

We need to build structures around people, processes and technology, factoring in the entire value chain. People are at the centre of our technology vision.

 

IJS is within the Department of Justice as the umbrella; these cluster units fall under the IJS, which was created to modernise the entire criminal justice system. It includes member departments such as the South African Police Services (SAPS), State Security Agency (SSA), Office of the Chief Justice, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Home Affairs, Legal Aid South Africa, the departments of Correctional Services and Social Development.

At a gathering in late July, hosted by Trend Micro, senior managers of ICT in Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster and other invited guests from the public and private sectors, thrashed out the importance of cyber security in the justice system.

Says IJS’ Portfolio Head, Nicholas Munyai: “This gathering imparted interesting and impactful trends on a national and global scale and provided the platform for robust, valuable, engaging and fruitful discussion. We need to build structures around people, processes and technology, factoring in the entire value chain. We also need to overcome such pain points as connectivity issues.”