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has raised the maximum monetary jurisdiction of magistrates in civil matters from $2 000 to $10 000, Judge President George Chiweshe said yesterday.
Official opening the 2013 Legal Year of the Bulawayo High Court Judge President Chiweshe said the move followed suggestions of structural and organic changes in the justice delivery system in order to streamline the operations of the High Court in view of the ever increasing workload.
“The backlog of cases in the High Court primarily has to do with civil matters. I believe that the main reason why the High Court is so inundated is because we have not created a structure that acts as an intermediate court between the High Court and the magistracy.
“While the regional magistrates presently fill the gap in so far as criminal cases are concerned, there has not been a corresponding arrangement on the civil side of the equation. Appropriate legislation is required to address this anomaly,” he said.
He said while the jurisdiction of magistrates had been increased to $10 000 they had suggested that it be increased to $20 000, which would have brought relief to the High Court.
Judge President Chiweshe said there was need for regional magistrates’ powers of scrutiny to be substantially revised upwards.
Such a development, he said, would reduce the number of criminal reviews in the High Court.
“We receive on a day to day basis piles of review files from various magisterial stations in the country. The judges are overwhelmed. Again we urge the legislature to act decisively. If not the system is bound to collapse,” said the Justice Chiweshe.
The Judge President said the other area, which needed urgent attention was that of the Labour Court. He said the court should be granted powers to execute its own judgments and arbitral awards.
Presently labour awards must, for purposes of execution, be registered with the High Court or the magistrates’ courts.
“This sounds straight forward. However, invariably every application for registration will be opposed on one ground or another. The result is that our opposed matters motion roll has ballooned to unprecedented levels,” he said.
Judge President Chiweshe made special mention of the Royal Dutch Embassy, which he said had assisted the Judicial Service Commission with funding for a number of projects in the last three years.
Online Reporter