A new bail fund initiative in South Africa, supported by the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) and the Bertha Foundation, will assist low-risk remand detainees who cannot afford bail.

Unlike earlier misconceptions reported by some outlets, the bail fund will not rely on taxpayer money. It is entirely funded through donations and grants from the Bertha Foundation, operating as an "extra-institutional" entity outside the structures of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), courts, Department of Correctional Services (DCS), and JICS itself. Partial funding for the pilot phase has already been secured, though specific donors remain unnamed in public reports.

What constitutes a “low risk” criminal is largely a matter of opinion, and especially in South Africa, where violent crime is rife and judges are often ideologically inclined to believe that poverty excuses criminal behaviour even of severe character, is a rather slippery term. JICS Inspecting Judge Edwin Cameron supports the ideological position of this initiative, proclaiming the "injustice of being detained simply because of poverty".

The pilot initiative currently targets over 2,600 awaiting-trial detainees stuck in overcrowded South African prisons because they cannot pay bail of R1,000 or less, with many more unable to afford slightly higher amounts. But this number is almost certainly to grow.

The pilot phase isset to launch soon after feasibility studies conducted with input from the Bertha Centre and research from Harvard Law School’s Advocates for Human Rights, which examined global bail fund models.

It will focus on low-risk offenders, typically those charged with most offenses excluding domestic violence against women. It has garnered broad support from judicial officers, prosecutors, the NPA (with Deputy National Director Anton du Plessis endorsing it as aligning with their policy), DCS representatives like Chief Deputy Commissioner Cynthia Ramulifho, and academics (Bertha funds UCT and Stellenbosch, just by the way).

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The long term view

With the severe backlog in South African courts, the ability to hold criminals on remand, while expensive, helps reduce the negative effect “petty” criminals have on the lives of those around them.

If successful on their own terms, the fund could see over a large portion of offenders on remand being released to wait up to a year for a trial date, removing entirely the disincentive to crime for small-time criminals.

Opposition has emerged from activists and groups like the Citizen Forum, who argue it might exacerbate crime by releasing offenders without “addressing root causes”, potentially burdening taxpayers indirectly if it fails.

Of course, the “root causes” thesis of crime is largely an ideological canard which reverses the real causal mechanism - crime destroys neighbourhoods and local economies, and traps people, families and communities in cycles of degeneration.

Hardline interventions into criminal behaviour, privided they are competently implemented, are recognised around the world as having positive feedback effects on the flourishing of communities and local economies.

And almost by definition, though certainly backed up by empirical research, the more time criminals spend in jail, the less crime is committed.

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The benefactor

So who wants them back on the street?

Tony Tabatznik, a South African billionaire, is the primary under of the Bertha Foundation, which he co-founded in 2009 with his wife, Diana Tabatznik. Tabatznik's wealth comes from his successful career in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly as the former CEO of Arrow Generics, which he sold for $1.75 billion.

Tabatznik and his associates train and fund left-wing legal activists, through organisations like the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the Equal Educational Law Centre, the Legal Resources Centre, and the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), who has become well known for assisting in organising and defending land invasions.

Bertha fund similar initiatives across the globe, with 80 fellowships at 20 partner organizations in 19 countries, with a total of 356 Bertha Justice Fellows and “Alumnx” (279 alumni, 77 fellows to date). The initiative aims to train 1,000 lawyers over the next 10 years, with significant activities in South Africa, such as partnerships with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits University.

They work closely with the Open Society Foundation in funding propaganda around the world for various ideologically affiliated causes, from the Ukraine war to pro-abortion activism, climate change, “decolonisation”, and mass migration and refugee programmes.

They run the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, part of the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business, which increases their social reach among the emerging local business cohort.

Funding for activism, legal services, and documentary films, further supporting the progressive alignment. Its activities, such as the Bertha Challenge, which supports activists and investigative journalists, increases their long-term reach and helps preserve the hard left-wing quality of our public sphere.

Similar interventions by wealthy left-wing activist organisations like the Open Society Foundation in America have included massive funding for District Attourney campaigns, to place antinomian (meaning “against law”) prosecutors in charge, which has led to a massive crime wave across America, as criminals were let off for almost every conceivable transgression, to the point that law enforcement became almost impossible for a number of cities.

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Undue influence

The fund will be financed by donations and grants, not taxpayer money (as was erroneously claimed by The South African), and will operate “independently” of the state. Of course, this “independence” makes the JICS dependent on the Bertha Foundation to balance its budget.

The aim is nominally to alleviate prison overcrowding, currently at an average rate of about 46%, and reduce the financial burden on the state. The state spends approximately R12,125 per month per remand detainee (equating to over R31 million monthly for those with bail under R1,000).

The ability to trim this figure gives the Foundation substantial leverage over prosecutorial policy, practically speaking, the policy requires the logistical integration of the Foundation’s operatives into the judicial and prison institutions, which will enable them to influence the day-to-day operation of the entire criminal justice system.

With such influence, the definition of "low risk" criminals may soon be stretched. The prison system holds 156,600 inmates against a capacity of 105,474, with 59,574 being pre-trial detainees, meaning that as this initiative expands, it has the possibility affect up to 38% of all criminal cases.

Of course, the Bertha Foundation is a well-connected far-left organisation, so the likelihood that they would receive official criticism seems unlikely in a country run by an elite of consonant ideology.

But neither would a left-wing organisation much care for saving public money. Their aim is to reduce the amount of jailtime served for criminal acts. The less time criminals do, the more opportunities they have for committing crimes.

The effect this could have on our communities could be severe, but accountability and independence is not a hallmark of South African public institutions.

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