Lamola expects Ramaphosa to reveal details of corruption-fighting courts

Justice minister Ronald Lamola expects President Cyril Ramaphosa to report back on the creation of four special courts dealing with corruption cases in his state of the nation address.

“The president announced after the PPE scandal that we're going to create an additional four special-crimes courts, which we have already done and which we hope will ease the congestion on the [court] roll and expedite some of the specialised commercial crimes matters, including corruption,” Lamola said on the red carpet before the event.

He added that Ramaphosa was likely to make a clarion call for the public to join in the fight against crime.

“He will also speak about the role that everyone in the public must play, that all the stakeholders must play, to help us confront the demon of state capture now that we have the [commission] report.

“Government, the private sector and all stakeholders must put our hands together and whatever support that can be provided to the law-enforcement agencies must be provided through the relevant prescripts of the National Treasury.”

Meanwhile, ANC parliamentary caucus leader Pemmy Majodina said it was vital that Sona went ahead as planned — albeit at a new venue because of the devastating parliament fire — because the country was in a “flat mood wherein they think nobody is safe”.

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