I went to Criminal Courts to observe today… and what a dysfunctional mess it was!

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My attorney had suggested to me that a good exercise might be to spend some time in criminal courts to observe the process. He wanted me to get used to certain things as practise for me for the future in court. So today I went to a court where some more serious crimes appeared. I spent about 2 hours in court, but what a mess it was.

In that time there wasn’t a single trial that actually ran in the 4 courts I went to. The Blacks were helpful telling me which courts might be worth going to. But in the end, every single trial was postponed for one reason or another! Whenever a magistrate took a break, I would dash out of the one court into another one and sit there. And so I moved around several times.

Then at 10:30, while waiting in a court where prosecutors told me there would DEFINITELY be a trial … the freaking LIGHTS WENT OUT!!!! We have got lots of power problems and load shedding (rolling blackouts), and it hit while I was waiting. So I waited 30 minutes in the dark court with the Blacks there shining torches so they could work. Then I decided to leave. I will go back next week and try again.

It is good that we wear COVID masks because at times, from some of the things I saw and heard, I had some good laughs.

I want to repeat to Whites: Do NOT imagine that we are the only people with problems. You should see how the non-Whites behave. The most interesting thing was a trial that involved an Indian teenager, where the father was complaining intensely about the Black State Prosecutor. The Black State Prosecutor himself was complaining intensely about the Indian! There was no love lost there and both were bitching about each other to the Black Magistrate. There were also Indian magistrates that I saw at work today.

I must tell you, when I sat there with my COVID mask on, there were times I burst out into big grins and I’m happy it was hidden by my mask.

I only saw 2 Whites in the court and they were there for a trial where a Black had done something to them. But that was postponed because there were no translators!

Every case was postponed because of some problem or other! But when the electricity went out I decided I wasn’t going to hang around endlessly. I will return again next week.