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A case of a Bulawayo man accused of brutally murdering his wife by chopping her into pieces was stalled at the High Court after the recording machines used to capture verbal proceedings in court broke down during trial. This forced the presiding judge to halt proceedings, according to a story carried in yesterday’s edition of Chronicle.
The stopping of proceedings will bring anxiety to the relatives of the dead woman who are hoping for closure with a speedy conclusion of the case. However, as long as there are no recording machines, the case will remain in limbo.
The alleged murder case is not the only one affected. Sources at the courts say automatic appeals to the Supreme Court by four convicted murderers sentenced to hang cannot be heard because the cases were on tapes which are inaudible, making it difficult for them to be transcribed, while civil cases have also been affected.
Recording machines play a crucial role in the justice delivery system as they provide verbatim what goes on in a trial. The recordings provide irrefutable proof on conversations in court, unlike a judge’s or magistrate’s hand written notes which can be disputed as the bench cannot capture every word unlike a recorder.
Because there is no room for error during a trial, it is essential that all deliberations in court are caught on tape so that in case of a dispute or during a review, a word for word transcript is available.
If authorities do not act as a matter of urgency and make sure that courts in Bulawayo have reliable working recording machines, there is a danger that the case backlog at the courts, which is already high, will spiral to unmanageable levels.
It is for this reason we are concerned that the justice delivery system is being constrained by obsolete recording equipment.
It is scandalous that a city as big as Bulawayo does not have a standby recording system in case of breakdowns.
According to the story, even the Bulawayo regional court which deals with serious cases such as rape has only one recording machine, with others having broken down sometime ago.
We wonder if these machines have broken down beyond repair and if so what has been done to get replacements.
The justice delivery system is important to the well being of Zimbabwe that we can not afford to have its smooth functioning interrupted for any reason.
The government, through the responsible ministry and the Judicial Service Commission, must ensure that the courts are adequately resourced to deliver justice.
The courts raise a lot of money from people paying for their transgressions against society. If this money is going directly to Treasury, we suggest that the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs be allowed to retain a certain percentage which can be used by the courts to buy essential equipment such as recording machines.
Our justice delivery system must also be modernised.
The fact that the recording machines are using tapes shows that the equipment is old and that why it is breaking down. Our courts need to move with the times and acquire new machinery to avoid frequent breakdowns.
The process might be expensive in the short term but we believe the benefits in the long term will outweigh the initial capital outlay.
Online Reporter