Courts resume business

Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
COURTS are with effect from today fully operational except for solemnisation of marriages but will operate with a skeleton staff.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has acquired Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for workers including judges and magistrates.

The commission has also disinfected courts and rearranged the sitting to allow for social distancing as part of measures to mitigate against the spread of Covid-19.

Judges and magistrates will be battling to clear backlogs as the courts have been attending to urgent matters only since the start of the national lockdown on March 30.

Solemnisation of marriages remain suspended until the end of the lockdown.

Those coming to court will be subjected to temperature checks and sanitisation of hands at entrances and will be required to wear face masks, avoid person to person contact and maintain social distancing.

In an interview yesterday, JSC acting secretary Mr Walter Chikwanha said: “We are ready for tomorrow, we have secured all the required PPE for our staff including judges and magistrates and we have also placed notices that regulate the manner in which members of the public are going to access the courts.

From Friday to today we have been disinfecting our courtrooms and arranging the sitting to enable us to observe social distancing to mitigate against the spread of the virus,” he said.

Mr Chikwanha said there was a backlog of cases as the courts have been attending to urgent cases only during lockdown.

“The courts have been dealing with initial remands and bail applications only and and as such there is a backlog of cases,” said Mr Chikwanha.

Entry to courtrooms is limited to litigants, their legal practitioners, witnesses and members of the Press.