Madam Speaker, as I said earlier, according to the statistics I analysed, more than 80 per cent of young people in youth court are between the ages of 16 and 18. The reversal of the onus, which make it incumbent on the young offender to apply to be tried under the Young Offenders Act instead of in adult court, would have two implications. First, the considerable number of applications will increase the burden of the courts. All, or at least 80 per cent of young offenders will ask to be tried under the Young Offenders Act, which will put an additional burden on the courts.
Second, at the present time a young offender may be referred to adult court, but only 5 per cent of such cases are actually referred. So this would create an additional burden and more work all around for nothing, since we know that 95 per cent of the applications by these 80 per cent will be approved by the judges who make the final decision on the basis of the jurisprudence, their own experience and the merits of the case and the available evidence, and decide not to transfer these young offenders to adult court.
I think that putting the onus on young offenders between the ages of 16 to 18 to apply for a referral to youth court instead of the reverse, which is the case now, is not the answer. I do not think that is a good way to deal with the problem.