“The burglary signals a well orchestrated act, not only aimed at undermining the judiciary’s credibility by way of holding judges at ransom, but also exposing our intelligence services as the weakest point in the detection of the recent acts of this nature,” said Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo.

He said stealing 15 computers containing confidential information of all South Africa’s judges, judiciary staff and all the courts “is clearly not a random occurrence, and this can be seen as an act of intimidation”.

“It should never be that such an important institution which administers our justice system as a country falls victim to such humiliation,” said Mamabolo.

The union called on intelligence services to be more proactive in dealing with such crimes. DM