A group of more than 160 legal practitioners has written to the Department of Justice, motivating for the adoption of new technology that would allow for virtual courtrooms during the lockdown – and beyond, says a report in The Citizen.

Gauteng-based lawyer Danie Swanepoel, who signed the correspondence on behalf of the group, said that while this technology could provide a solution to an urgent and pressing problem during the lockdown, it could also contribute to a more accessible justice system in general.

‘We’ve got a lot of indigent persons who want to come to court and be heard,’ Swanepoel said.

He said this technology could provide a platform from which these individuals could make virtual court appearances and that it would help them save on, for example, transport costs.

In their correspondence, e-mailed to Justice Minister Ronald Lamola on Monday, Swanepoel and his colleagues said the courts appeared to have ‘ground to a halt’ during the lockdown.

‘It seems clear that there are extremely valid reasons why many of the courts are not willing to risk the opening of the roll at present,’ they said.

But they believed the current situation was ‘detrimental to the public, the economy of the country, the protection of citizens’ basic rights, the legal profession and the administration of justice’.

Justice Department spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said Minister Ronald Lamola and the department had written to the Legal Practice Council to ascertain what the impact of Covid-19 had been on the profession.

‘In addition, we have also asked about the impact of the directions gazetted by the department,’ he said.

‘We have received this feedback and we are attending to the issues raised as well as the proposed solutions.’

Full report in The Citizen