Accra, Oct. 2 GNA- Mr. Deon Van Zyl, former High Court Judge and Currently Inspector of South African Prisons on Thursday called on Judges and Magistrates to ensure professionalism and integrity in the exercise of their duties.

He said the function of judges is a God-given one and as such they must be fair and just to all manner of persons. Mr. Van Zyl was delivering the keynote address at the 29th Annual General Meeting of the Association of Judges and Magistrates (AJM) in Accra.

He said the judiciary also has responsibility to ensure that the various prisons were not overcrowded with remand prisoners. He said Ghana has credible record of how to bring justice to the people by ensuring easy access to the courts. He advised the Judges and Magistrates to use the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme to resolve civil disputes and relatively minor criminal amicably.

Mr. Justice Joseph B. Akamba, an Appeal Court Judge and President of AJM called for better conditions of service for Judges and Magistrates, especially the lower bench. He said the an emerging issue still outstanding following the upward adjustment of the salaries of the lower bench was the clothing and leave allowances based upon the newly adjusted figures which has not materialised. He appealed to the CJ to issue directives to effect payment since most beneficiaries have their budget drawn up and awaiting the funds.

Mr Justice Akamba also called on public institutions that have been mandated to conduct elections and secure peace to act professionally and win the confidence of Ghanaians. He said there was many untrained media personnel in the system that are "doing their own thing," while those trained too have allowed their passion rather than professionalism to guide their judgement. He asked the National Media Commission to stamp its authority to ensure that media houses operate within the ethics of the profession. This way, unguarded utterances and inflammatory statements that whip up political and ethnic sentiments could be avoided. "We cannot continue to bail out recklessness of a few of our fellow citizens by our silence. We need each other now, during and after the elections. Ghana must be put above all self interest" he added. 02 Oct. 08