adminGivemore Nyazvigo (30), of Number 82 Cecil Avenue had just pleaded not guilty to the charge and the State counsel, Ms Angeline Munyeriwa, was about to present exhibits to the court when the judge’s clerk announced that the machine had stopped recording.
Acting Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Meshack Cheda sitting with Messrs Elliot Nyoni and Phanuel Damba had to adjourn around 11.15am and it had been hoped that a replacement would be found.
The matter was later stood down to after lunch but still there was no joy as an alternative recording machine could not be found.
This is not the first time that a court has had to adjourn as a result of the recording machine as this was the case during the resumption of the treason trial of three political activists.
The court was forced to adjourn for about 45 minutes on 24 April as the machine also started malfunctioning, but fortunately there was another machine in the Civil Court which developed a problem yesterday.
The Assistant Registrar and Master of the High Court in Bulawayo, Mr Njabulo Mabuya, confirmed that there was a problem with the recording machines.
“The problem has been relayed to authorities in Harare and at the moment, we hope it is receiving due attention. Senior Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Ndou is in the capital attending the funeral of the late Justice Tadius Bernard Karwi and we hope he will discuss the problem with officials from the Judicial Services Commission,” said Mr Mabuya.
He said they were now waiting for a response from Harare, adding that they had failed to get a recording machine from the Regional Courts as they do not have any to spare.
The regional courts themselves only have one recording machine as others stopped functioning sometime ago.
Sources at the courts said there was a bigger problem than met the eye as the problem of the ageing recording machines was a contentious matter.
The sources said the High Court was sitting on the records of four death row prisoners, who are entitled to an automatic appeal to the Supreme Court that cannot be transcribed because the tapes were inaudible.
They also said the problem was compounded by the fact that besides the tapes of the recordings being inaudible, efforts to use judges’ notes were not bearing any fruit as they at times do not contain all details of the proceedings.
The Supreme Court, they noted, wants a complete transcript of the trial court and does not want incomplete records.
Civil trials will not be spared as their proceedings also need to be recorded before they can be transcribed.
The sources said in the past all recording machines used to be serviced during vacations but noted that it has been more than 10 years since the machines were last serviced.
The development means that the treason trial of Charles Thomas, John Gazi and Paul Siwela, which is set to continue today, cannot proceed since there would be no recording machine.
If not attended to urgently, this might result in a huge backlog being created in both the criminal and civil cases.
Twenty-five cases have been set down for hearing in the criminal court this term.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter