admin
Sunday News Reporters
The Government is considering decentralising the High Court to all the country’s 10 provinces, in a move that is expected to improve the justice delivery system, Judge President Justice George Chiweshe said yesterday.Presenting a paper during a two-day National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) workshop in Bulawayo, Justice Chiweshe said the prevailing setup had seen judges being overloaded with work in short spaces of time.
At the moment, the High Court has two permanent bases in Harare and Bulawayo and only visits other provinces on circuit basis where cases are heard in a marathon fashion over a limited period.
Justice Chiweshe said because the circuit system overloads judges, the quality of judgments may be compromised.
“There have been requests coming from people on the decentralisation of the High Court. It’s an area that we have looked at and we agreed that indeed there is a need to set up permanent High Courts in all the provinces.
“We have done a study and we came to the conclusion to decentralise the High Court. The circuit system is not healthy for the judge because at times one may be required to hear 10 cases in 10 days. Yes the job would have been done to clear the backlog but quality might be compromised,” he said.
Justice Chiweshe, however, said the move might be stalled by lack of resources, a situation that might force Government to implement the decentralisation programme in phases.
He said resources were needed to set up accommodation facilities for judges as well as the buildings to house the High Court.
“Due to budgetary challenges we might decentralise in phases where we will start with criminal cases being heard in the provinces then civil matters will follow at a later stage.
“We need money to secure accommodation for judges, and as you know we don’t have adequate infrastructure to house the High Court in the provinces. We need to secure the funding, but we will start the programme with what we have and build as we go,” he said.
During a plenary session, a complaint was raised over the absence of a High Court circuit for Matabeleland South province despite a significant number of High Court cases coming from the province.
Such cases are being heard at the Bulawayo High Court.
Responding to the concern, Justice Chiweshe said his office would look into the matter and prioritise establishing a High Court circuit in Gwanda before the decentralisation process.
Online Reporter