Newly-appointed Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola has announced plans to modernise and digitise courts, transform the legal profession, tackle corruption head-on and speed up necessary legislation, notes Legalbrief. Delivering his 'political overview' to the the National Assembly's Justice Committee, he noted the courts continue to operate on outdated systems. ‘While the previous administrations have undertaken an enormous task in expanding the courts' footprint by building new courts, especially in rural and previously marginalised areas, I have already expressed the need to modernise the court system as part of the legacy of the sixth administration. We cannot continue to function under the business processes defined by the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, which does not exploit the efficiencies of the fourth industrial revolution,’ Lamola is quoted as saying by TimesLIVE. ‘We cannot, in this time and age, spend millions of rands, if not billions, to pay physical storage for records kept on paper when ... modern jurisdictions are digitising their records; buy paper books when court judgments and publications can be accessed quickly and easily through technology, and send police and sheriffs to effect physical delivery of court processes when such can be efficiently done through the use of information communication technology,’ he added.