adminOfficially opening the 2012 Legal Year at the High Court in Bulawayo, Justice Chiweshe said due to the low figure pegged at $2 000 for the magistrates’ courts, the workload at the High Court had unduly increased.
The Judge President also noted that there were challenges in the transcription of records for criminal appeals from the lower courts as evidenced by the fact that of the 370 notices of appeal received, only 143 records were ready for set down last year.
“Further it is noted that only a quarter of the criminal appeals were prosecuted. A disturbing number of 87 appeals were dismissed by the Registrar for want of prosecution. It seems that quite a number of appeals were filed for the purpose of securing bail for the appellants.
“The Registrar of this court, the Attorney General’s Office and the police are in consultation to ensure that these appeals are genuine and are prosecuted. There should be no misuse and abuse of the appeal process,” he said.
Justice Chiweshe noted that there was concern over long outstanding partly heard criminal matters adding that although such cases were few, it was necessary that a solution be found for their finalisation as some accused persons had been in custody for lengthy periods.
While presently the court roll can only accommodate an average of 22 criminal cases per term, Justice Chiweshe noted that the AG’s Office received 131 dockets in 2010 and 96 last year.
He added: “Needless to say, a backlog is created every year. We have only one criminal court sitting per day (Tuesdays to Fridays). If we had sufficient courtrooms, we would have at least two criminal courts sitting per day.”
Justice Chiweshe noted that in 2011 there was a marked increase in the workload as compared to 2010 with civil processes issued having increased by 945.
Ordinary chamber applications rose from 487 in 2010 to 686 in 2011; urgent chamber applications rose from 239 in 2010 to 419 last year. Default judgments rose from 336 in 2010 to 754 last year and bail applications increased from 185 in 2010 to 319 last year.
“The rate of clearance of civil cases is satisfactory. However, there is concern over the clearance of civil appeals. Although a total of 128 notices of appeal were received, only 22 records were ready for set down.
“There is a problem with transcription of records by the lower courts. Further, the appellants are not prosecuting their appeals as expected. An added problem is the mobility of litigants which makes the service of set down notices very difficult,” he said.
The High Court received 406 divorce cases of which 206 were cleared representing a clearance rate of 51 percent, 1 105 chamber applications were received with 779 cleared representing a clearance rate of 71 percent and 353 default judgment applications were lodged with 259 of them cleared representing a 73 percent clearance rate.
Bulawayo received 72 criminal matters; 41 of them were cleared representing a 57 percent clearance rate. Gweru circuit received 37 cases with 26 being cleared and Hwange circuit received 35 cases with 23 being cleared representing a clearance rate of 66 percent.
Online Reporter