Seeking to improve spatial justice - the case of rationalising the district court areas in South Africa - utilising several spatial analysis methods.

Abstract

It is the right of every South African to have just or fair access to justice. Due to South Africa’s past spatial development history the location of people versus where facilities are, is not always in balance. This paper describes work conducted for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development during 2014 to assist the process to rationalise magisterial districts. In order to determine access to courts, some form of impact assessment is required – this paper outlines the accessibility analysis conducted in respect of the Gauteng and North West provinces (which served also as the first two provinces to be ad-dressed). The analysis is for the most part a spatial- or geographic analysis pro-cess to map levels of access that can then be compared with proposed new magisterial district boundaries. The findings of this analysis provides overall results of accessibility as well as makes specific recommendations based on the results when compared to the proposed new magisterial districts.