I must say that it always surprises me in a practice where one’s case is invariably going to Court, that a significant percentage of clients have a very ambivalent attitude in going to Court. In other words, they see the Court date and the day when the case will be settled, but they really don’t seem to think, despite what you tell them to the contrary, that they actually have to be at Court on that day or that if they are not at Court, there could be some terribly serious and expensive consequences for them.

The same is true of the Criminal Courts, where you repeatedly hear from people that they are not happy that criminals get away with “murder” in South Africa and that the justice system is simply falling apart, but when those same people are witnesses in cases, they don’t turn up again and again until the case is dismissed and the accused walks free without a trial having taken place. It becomes one more statistic in the long list of failures to achieve a conviction, but the reality is that if there is any failure, it is by the members of public, who demand that the system must be improved, but just cannot take the time to do their civil duty and attend at Court when told to do so as a witness. My honest belief is that if the Magistrates and Judges were a little bit harsher and gave a few more of these people a spin of time in jail, the message would very quickly get out that when you are called to Court you attend!