Justice department books Sun City for three-day access to justice conference

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development will convene an International Conference on Access to Justice from 11 to 13 November 2026 at the Sun City Convention Centre in North West.

The department announced the dates and venue in a post on X on 3 November, saying the gathering is intended to “advance dialogue on people-centred justice, digital transformation, anti-corruption, asset recovery and partnerships for access to quality justice”.

Those five themes are the department’s own framing of the conference. The announcement did not set out the programme, the speakers, which countries or institutions are sending delegations, the cost to the department, or who is paying for the event. It also did not say what the conference is expected to produce, whether a declaration, a set of commitments or a report.

Access to justice is a live question in South Africa’s courts, where the department is the custodian of the country’s court system and its legal aid provision. The conference themes name anti-corruption and asset recovery alongside digital transformation, placing the event in the same territory as the state’s capacity to investigate and recover the proceeds of crime.

Sun City, in the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality, is a resort complex about two hours’ drive from Johannesburg. The choice of venue, rather than a court or government building, is the department’s.

The department said only that the conference would advance dialogue. Until the programme is published, South Africans have the dates, the venue and the themes, and no indication of what the three days will cost or deliver.