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Lecture

Glynnis Breytenbach
Shortcomings in the South Africa Justice System and How to Fix Them

Tuesday 17.10.2023

Summary

This talk concentrates on the breakdown of the criminal justice system in South Africa. Glynnis covers why it happened, where South Africa currently finds itself and how the DA proposes to fix it.

Glynnis Breytenbach

an image of Glynis Breytenbach

Adv Glynnis Breytenbach is a former prosecutor for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of South Africa and a Member of Parliament for the Democratic Alliance (DA). She is South Africa’s Shadow Minister of Justice.

Well, South Africa has a large population and a large rural population. Children are kidnapped. Young girls are kidnapped and taken abroad and never find their way back. Also in South Africa, young children and young people are kidnapped and kept in the country, but held captive and against their will. South Africa has very poor borders, so it’s really easy to get people out of the country without the proper documentation currently. Any border into Africa is relatively easy to access with the right amount of bribery taking place. So the issue of our poorest borders and large scale corruption make South Africa a target for human trafficking. And it’s one of the issues that the financial action task force have a serious problem with in South Africa. So we have tried to address it, but we have not yet successfully stopped it.

South Africa continues to produce miracles and continues to surprise, continues to buck the trend. And so I absolutely believe that the government will be replaced in 2024. I believe that the coalition arrangement provides a realistic alternative to the ANC that will attract a vast amount of voters who simply have given up on the ANC, have become completely disillusioned by the ANC and the inability of the ANC or the unwillingness of the ANC to look after ordinary citizens and only look after themselves. So I believe it will be replaced. And so I don’t see the collapse of the country as inevitable. I remain optimistic about the prospect.

Yeah, South Africa takes a diminished view of dual citizenship, but they cannot take away your right to your South African citizenship. So in fact, you should be able to register to vote and you should be able to vote.