Dunstan Mlambo, Judge President of the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts, feels that is it unfair that the Johannesburg-based court serves people from Polokwane, Nelspruit, Bloemfontein and Kimberley. "We want to track offices where the CCMA is," he said, "because that is where the disputes first go. And then the registrar here, when they get cases, they now allocate them according to geographical location. We'll start hearing cases where they come from".
This is the second significant step the court has taken to make justice more accessible to ordinary citizens. Judge Mlambo hopes that this move will "strengthen my hand when I go to the minister and say I need more resources to build more courts and to appoint more judges". The Johannesburg and Durban labour courts now have permanent pro bono offices where litigants can walk in and get advice.
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