Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
The Judiciary Services Commission has initiated a plan to digitise a total of 16 courts in Matabeleland South and Masvingo provinces, extending the coverage of the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS) nationwide.
So far magistrates’ courts in Mashonaland Central and Matabeleland North went live on the digital platform at the beginning of July this year.
The initiative is part of the fourth phase of IECMS implementation and, among other things, will ensure that these courts transition to a fully paperless environment, with electronic case filing and tracking now available to the public.
In an interview yesterday, soon after interacting with court officials, lawyers, the police, ordinary citizens, border agencies, among other stakeholders JSC Secretary Mr Walter Chikwanha said the Beitbridge provincial magistrate and regional courts will go live on October 1 this year.
He said preliminary works were now in full swing ahead of the launch and that technicians had been deployed to install the necessary hardware on the ground.
“Under the IECMS system courts will be digitised and you will be able to file documents, file pleadings, to interact with the courts and other players in the justice administrative system you do it through the IECMS system that we have deployed,” he said.
“As a starting point it’s important that we engage and unpack the programme to the community and line stakeholders. There is power in collaborative efforts.
“The digital system enables litigants and legal practitioners to file cases electronically, track progress remotely, and communicate with the courts through a unified online platform, a first for many users in the region”.
Mr Chikwanha said training and capacity building of court officials and line stakeholders about the new system will be carried out in Beitbridge next month.
He encouraged the Beitbridge community to register their details in the latest digital system at the local courts.
The system, he added, was only accessible to those who would have registered and have smartphones or other electronic gadgets which have internet facilities.
“To ensure that we don’t leave anyone behind and we are all inclusive we are going to set up e-filing help desks at all participating courts, offering technical support and guidance to assist users unfamiliar with the digital interface, and those without the internet or electronic gadgets,” said Mr Chikwanha.
“More e-filing offices will be set up at traditional leaders’ residences in the community to make sure that those in remote areas can use the new digital system”.
He added that the IECMS will be run on two internet service providers to minimise technical glitches.
Mr Chikwanha emphasised that the new digital system would improve judicial efficiency, enhance transparency, and reduce both delays and the risk of information loss.
In addition, he said, the IECMS comes with the added benefit of minimising human contact, which is critical in the evolving digital justice landscape.
“We have successfully digitised superior courts and now we are coming down to lower courts and you will note that the magistrate courts have a huge workload. The idea is to make services seamless as we drift towards the envisaged Vision 2030,” said Mr Chikwanha.
“As the JSC we are intensifying this project and the target is to roll out the system to the remaining Magistrates’ Courts nationwide in the coming months as Zimbabwe moves towards a modern, streamlined justice delivery model”.
He said they had hired specialists in cybersecurity and ICT to ensure the system is protected from manipulation.
Going forward, Mr Chikwanha said they will also make use of Artificial Intelligence to improve service delivery in the IECMS system on issues to do with translation (to local languages) and transcription (automated).
He said the digital system had been warmly embraced by communities in areas where it is currently in use and that the feedback from inception meetings was encouraging.
“We have a very secure system where we have at least 300 specialists in ICT, software engineers, cyber security and since we commenced using this system on May 1, 2022 we have had no successful attacks on the IECMS system,” said Mr Chikwanha.
“As JSC we have learnt some best systems which we have tried to follow and model Zimbabwean style from Rwanda. In fact, we learnt a lot in terms of benchmarking. They enlightened us on the challenges they have had and we have avoided those”.
@tupeyo
