Is it car first or people first at the Krugersdorp Court?
According to sources, the Krugersdorp court has allegedly betrayed the Batho Pele (people first) principle in favour of moto pele (car first).
The Krugersdorp Magistrates’ Court has been accused of betraying the public servants’ motto, Batho Pele, which means putting people first.
The News recently received a complaint about the court. The complainant, who chose not to be named because he fears being victimised, alleged that the court does not care about the well-being of the public or the professional staff employed at the court.
“This is evident from the manner in which they allocate their budget resources. Money is spent on expensive carports to protect the manager’s luxury cars, and palisade fencing costing hundreds of thousands of rands was erected to protect these same cars. Luxury furniture was purchased by the managers for their own offices.
The managers even have private toilets while the public use small toilets with no liquid soap dispensers and they get filthy very quickly and often get blocked,” said the complainant.
There are other complaints, for instance, the air-conditioning inside the court that has not worked for 12 years and the chairs in court that have not been replaced in 12 years, resulting in court staff having to poach old chairs to replace the broken ones.
The News decided to pay the court a visit after receiving these complaints. An appointment was made with the court administrative manager who refuted all these claims. The manager, Mr Chauke, refused to give the News his full name and cooperation.
“Even people who work here call me Mr Chauke,” he said. He further told the News that he is not obliged to speak to the media because all media inquiries are forwarded to the head office in Pretoria.
“My door is open to anyone, therefore the people who complained should speak to me directly because my door is always open to ordinary members of the public.
Parking inside the court premises is for people who work inside the court, we pay for parking and if we were to open this parking area to the public it would be chaos,” he told the News.
He also said that the palisade fencing encloses the court and is not for managers, and claimed that some people who come to the court steal the toilet roll when other people still need to use it.
He offered the News journalist a tour inside the court at a later date to prove that there is nothing irregular.
“Managers use the same toilets as the public and I only eat my lunch after 4pm because I am busy all day with meetings. I am sure the person who complained is a junior in the court who doesn’t even have a car and just wanted to appear in the paper,” he said after asking for the names of the people who complained.
He also threatened the News with legal action if any false facts are published. A request for comment has been sent to the head office as requested by Mr Chauke, and the News will update readers once comment has been received.
The News would like to invite readers who visited the court recently to share their experience with us. Leave your comment below the story or share your thoughts by emailing them to krugersdorpnews@caxton.co.za.
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