Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
The justice and constitutional development department has briefed the national assembly’s justice committee on the Sheriffs Amendment Bill.
The bill was tabled in Parliament at the end of January 2012. Cabinet approved the bill in November last year.
The proposed legislation aims to:
• Facilitate the establishment of advisory committees to help with the appointment of sheriffs
• Regulate the appointment of acting sheriffs
• Empower the minister to appoint sheriffs and acting sheriffs in areas where no appointments were made
• Regulate allowances paid to members of the South African Board for Sheriffs
• Provide for the dissolution of the board and the appointment of an interim board
• Regulate the use of the fidelity fund for sheriffs
• Regulate the auditing of records and financial statements of the fidelity fund for sheriffs
• Regulate improper conduct by sheriffs
The department pointed out that sheriffs are entrepreneurs who generate income from services and execution of court processes.
Therefore, sheriffs tend to congregate in affluent areas as a result of higher business opportunities.
Consequently, the poorer areas and, in particular, rural communities, suffer from insufficient numbers of sheriffs.
According to the department, only 6% of 366 magisterial districts have “lucrative and sustainable offices”.
These are found in Sandton, Randburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban.
Viable offices exist in 64% of the districts while 30% are located in small, non-viable districts.
Based on these figures, the department concluded that communities living in 30% of the districts are excluded from the civil justice system.
In terms of the appointment of acting sheriffs, the proposed legislation would allow for acting appointments to be made in situations where vacancies exist.
Currently, the law only allows for acting sheriffs to be appointed when the incumbent sheriff is unable to perform his or her functions.
The bill proposes that state employees such as maintenance investigators and the registrars of the court also be allowed to serve court processes.
However, state employees will not be empowered to execute any court order such as removal, storage and sale in execution. Their activities will be restricted to serving court processes such as summonses, protection orders and garnishing orders.
In areas where state officials have been appointed to serve court processes and no sheriff operates, the court manager would be empowered to rope in a sheriff from a neighbouring district in order to carry out an order.
As regards the board for sheriffs, the bill calls for an 11 member board.
The board would consist of:
• 5 sheriffs
• Justice department official
• 1 attorney nominated by Law Society of South Africa
• 1 member nominated by national credit regulator
• 3 fit and proper persons designated by minister
The proposed legislation also stipulates that the board develop “measures to enhance the opportunity of previously disadvantaged persons to have access to fidelity fund accreditation”.
Presently, fidelity fund certificates are given to sheriffs with sufficient financial resources to run an office.
The bill calls for certificates to be issued to previously disadvantaged persons.
The justice committee will soon issue an invitation calling for public comment on the bill.
Sabinet Cape Town Office
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