By Martin Muleya.
MUTARE, Zimbabwe (News Of The South) – The High Court (Mutare) received a total of 57 criminal matters with 54 completed while a paltry 3 were carried forward. Bail applications scored a 100 percent from the 170 applications received which were all cleared.
In his address during the official opening of the 2020 Legal Year at High Court of Zimbabwe (Mutare) today, Judge President Justice George Chiweshe applauded the two resident judges at the station for posting impressive results for the year under review.
He however bemoaned that a great deal of the clogging of cases at the High Court could be ameliorated by means of appropriate legislation.
Justice Chiweshe highlighted that for this to be achieved regional magistrates ought to be empowered with civil jurisdiction at the appropriate level and adding their powers of scrutiny in criminal matters be reviewed upwards in order to reduce the alarming numbers of criminal reviews presently characterizing the High Court bench.
“We note however that a great deal of the clogging of cases at the High Court can be ameliorated by putting in place appropriate legislation.
“Regional magistrates should be given civil jurisdiction at the appropriate level in addition their powers of scrutiny in criminal matters should be reviewed upwards in order to reduce the alarming numbers of criminal reviews presently being channelled at the High Court bench. Similarly, all labour court cases should be executed at the lower courts and end there and not at the High Court,” Justice Chiweshe said.
Turning on the operational statistics at Mutare High Court the Judge president underscored that plans were already in place to have another judge posted at the station as they anticipate an increase in the workload of the station.
“The first term of the High Court last year, saw the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) setting down 24 murder cases for trial. The number is high and is likely to get higher as the year progresses.
The current statistics at this station are as follows:
Pre-Trial Conferences 40 cases were received and 3t completed while 5 are still outstanding.72 unopposed divorce matters were received with 69 completed and 3 carried forward.
Unopposed matters excluding divorce which were successfully completed scored 94 percent record clearance, added Justice Chiweshe.
Frm left to right Justice Samuel Muzenda, Judge President Justice George Chiweshe, Justice Hlekani Mwayera and Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial affairs Dr. Ellen Gwaradzimba
The Mutare High Court station received 45 ordinary chamber applications, cleared 42 and carried forward only 3. Opposed matters the Court scored 100 percent as they received 26 cases and managed to clear them all.
Civil trials received six cases, cleared one and carried forward one. Urgent chamber applications also scored a 100 percent having received 18cases which were all cleared.
Civil appeals stood at 71 percent with 70 appeals received, 50 cleared while 20 were carried forward. The grand total of civil matters was 308 of these 275 cleared and 33 carried forward.
Reviews received were 991 with 984 cases completed, criminal applications 17 cases, 15 completed, carrying forward 2. The grand total for all criminal matters stood at 1348 matters with 1309 completed while 39 were carried forward.
Justice Chiweshe justified the above statistics by reiterating that the two resident judges at the station (Justices Samuel Muzenda and Hlekani Mwayera) did a tremendous job as they scored a whooping 96 percent in completing both criminal and civil matters with a total of 1656 cases received, 1584 were cleared while 72 were carried forward.
The judge president bemoaned the power outages currently bedeviling the country adding that the Judiciary had not been spared either.
“Ladies and gentlemen this Court’s operations have not been spared from the scourge of power outages that has consequently exposed more often than not the courts to loadshedding. I implore the JSC to consider investing in solar energy to cover all our cases”, he concluded.
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