Sun City to host justice access conference as South Africans still wait in court queues

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

The department announced the dates on its official X account on Wednesday, seven days before the conference opens, under the banner “THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN”. The post carried the hashtags #AccessToJusticeConference2026, #AccessToJusticeForAll and #GovZAUpdates.

That is the substance of what the department has placed on the public record so far. It has not published a programme, a delegate list, the countries or institutions taking part, or the cost of hosting the event at a resort conference venue.

Access to justice is the ground on which the department’s own service delivery is most often contested by the people who use it: the queues at magistrates’ courts, the time between arrest and trial, the cost of legal representation and the reach of legal aid. Whether the conference produces commitments on any of those is not yet known.

The Enquirer has asked the department for the conference programme, the list of participants and the budget. No response had been received at the time of publication.