‘Effective justice delivery achievable’

Daniel Nemukuyu Features Writer
Performance of the Supreme Court and the magistrates’ court countrywide have again come under the spotlight. This is for good reasons and should be commended.
Opening the 2014 legal year, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku heaped praise on the courts for clearing backlog of cases brought before them.

The Supreme Court judges managed to clear 409 appeals out of 522 in 2013, which translates to a clearance rate of 78 percent.

Magistrates, under the leadership of Mr Mishrod Guvamombe, also put a smile on Justice Chidyausiku’s face as he could not hide his joy while addressing a gathering at the opening of the current legal year.

“This remarkable clearance rate (by the Supreme Court) together with the performance of the magistrates’ courts warms my heart as head of the judiciary.

“It adds to my conviction that with the right interventions, effective justice delivery is not a pipe dream. ‘It is achievable’,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku.

In 2013, magistrates completed 85 008 criminal trials against an inflow of 82 383 cases, with 2 613 cases being those that were carried forward from 2012.

The magistrates’ courts in 2012 reduced the backlog from 45 000 at the beginning of the year to 10 000 by year-end.

While the success of the magistrates and the mentioned judges can be attributed to dedication to work, Judicial Service Commission’s partnerships with foreign and local stakeholders cannot be underestimated.

Government’s partners have played a critical role in improving the justice delivery system and efficiency of the courts in Zimbabwe.

Chief among them was the Royal Danish Embassy office in Harare, which funded the JSC’s Strategic Plan of 2012 to 2016.

In his recent keynote address marking the beginning of the 2014 legal year, running under the theme “Effective Service Delivery”, Chief Justice Chidyausiku said the outstanding performance of the courts in question was in line with the JSC’s Strategic Plan of 2012-2016 and has been committed to ensuring its full implementation.

In line with this, the JSC entered into a partnership with the Royal Danish Embassy office in Harare.

The long standing partnership is aimed at improving access to justice for all by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice delivery system in Zimbabwe while upholding the independence and integrity of the judicial system.

The partnership sponsored and ran a pilot computerised case tracking system at the High Court in Harare, which is set to be expanded to all courts of law in Zimbabwe.

The system electronically tracks cases from the date of filing of the initiating process to date of final determination.

This allows the progress of a case to be monitored using information technology in line with international best practice, to determine where the matter is within the court system while deterring possible manipulation.

The system allows for efficient case disposal through tracking and monitoring the rate of progress and promptly provides information on determination of matters before the courts. As a result, court officials can easily avail information to litigants and their legal practitioners upon request.

The public kiosk that was opened in September 2013 at the High Court also allows ordinary people to access information on their cases with much ease.

That puts to an end the outdated and porous traditional filing system, which resulted in several court records disappearing from the system.

The new system offers backup to the hard copy files and records and the status of files can now be simply checked from a computer without physically pulling a hard copy of the document.

A baseline survey conducted in 2013 shows that the case flow management system has enhanced the delivery of justice at the High Court, where a general reduction in the time taken to process cases was registered.

According to the survey, the time taken on chamber applications was reduced by 35 percent, court applications by 30 percent, summons by 26 percent while the time for processing bail applications was reduced by 50 percent in 2013.

As highlighted by the Chief Justice in his address, the case backlog has been reduced significantly throughout the judiciary. A project review report of 2013 also reveals that the new system resulted in a 65 percent decrease in the case backlog at the magistrates’ courts.

Specifically, case handling times at Mutoko Magistrates’ Court saw a 38 percent reduction.

The magistrates’ courts registered a 25 percent reduction in the time taken to handle criminal cases during 2013. In addition, a sector-wide staff training and development programme was introduced to build capacity in the judicial service while improving the effectiveness of court officials in their duties.

The Judicial College is now focused on providing quality in-house training programmes. As a result, formal on the job training rose by 5 percent from the 2012 baseline.

Some of the courses offered in 2013 include management of sexual abuse and violence cases, training for judges as well as court processes and procedures for clerks.

Court premises are also being renovated as part of the JSC-Royal Danish Embassy office partnership. This component of the Danish assistance includes the construction of new buildings as well as the refurbishment of existing ones.

The new building at Murehwa Magistrates Court is now complete and construction of new buildings in Norton and Esigodini is in progress.
In 2011, the embassy donated 11 vehicles for magistrates to ease transport problems.

The same year the embassy donated 52 desktop computers and printers for all resident magistrates throughout the country.

The Victim Friendly Court received 18 generators for all centres in Zimbabwe as backup power to ensure undisturbed recording of court proceedings and typing and printing of documents in times power outages.

The JSC-Royal Danish Embassy partnership has managed to achieve noteworthy results since 2010 and will strive for greater heights based on mutual respect, trust and transparency.

Denmark and Zimbabwe have a long history of cooperation dating back to the days of the liberation struggle when the Scandinavian country was a strong supporter of a free and independent Zimbabwe.

Since 2008, Denmark has emerged as one of Zimbabwe’s biggest bilateral donors focusing on governance and justice, private sector development through agriculture as well as infrastructure rehabilitation in the water sanitation and energy sectors.