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South Africa: President Ramaphosa assents to the Judicial Matters Amendment Act.

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Vincent
Published date03 April 2024

M2 PRESSWIRE-April 3, 2024-: South Africa: President Ramaphosa assents to the Judicial Matters Amendment Act

(C)1994-2024 M2 COMMUNICATIONS

RDATE:03042024

President Cyril Ramaphosa has assented to the Judicial Matters Amendment Act, 2023. The Judicial Matters Amendment Bills aim to amend numerous Acts which are administered by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and are intended to address mostly practical and technical changes in various pieces of legislation.

Some of the notable amendments include amongst others:

o Amendments which provide for the powers, duties and functions of the Chief Master, some of which were not part of the legislation before. These changes will allow the Chief Master to play a greater supervisory role over the Masters of the High Court and will lead to improved service delivery to the public and to legal practitioners.

o A provision that allows the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, after due consultation, to determine certain categories of offences which, if the accused pays or has paid an admission of guilt fine, would not result in the accused receiving a criminal record.

Following the Minister's determination, persons who already have received a criminal record for the identified categories of offences will have their offences expunged.

o A provision for the expungement of the criminal record of a person who paid an admission of guilt fine for violating the State of Disaster Regulations which were imposed during the COVID pandemic;

o A new mechanism to fight corruption, by creating an additional offence to be included in the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004 (Act No. 12 of 2004) regarding the failure of members of the private sector or state-owned entities to prevent corrupt activities. This is in line with...

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