Applications brought by banks are clogging up the High Courts, leading to long delays in the delivering of judgments. GroundUp says the situation was highlighted in a case before the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) which ruled that Magistrate's Courts should be the first port of call for banks seeking judgments against their clients.

The judges said the number of new cases coming before the Pretoria division of the Gauteng High Court had increased to nearly 100 000 in 2016 from 74 000 in 2012. In the Johannesburg division the case load is more stable, increasing to nearly 50 000 in 2017 from about 48 000 in 2012.

The two courts had about the same number of judges: 40 permanent judges and 23 acting judges in Pretoria, and 38 permanent judges and 24 acting judges in Johannesburg.

Judges sat in court almost every day and were forced to write judgments after hours or on weekends, the judges said. This results in inordinate delays in delivering judgments.

'Obviously this is an untenable situation that needs to be addressed in the interests of justice,' reads the judgment.

They said judges were also taking longer in trial preparation due to changes to court rules allowing for reserve prices to be set in cases where repossessed homes are sold at auction. All this resulted in delays of four to five months for cases to be heard.

The problem was aggravated by banks bringing cases before the High Court which should properly be heard in the Magistrate's Courts. The judgment says it becomes untenable for a single judge to hear 80 unopposed matters (where the defendants put up no opposition) in a day.

This has now been limited to 60 matters per judge per day.

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