The Sunday News
Peter Matika, Senior Reporter
THREE additional court rooms have been officially commissioned at the High Court of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, in line with the Judiciary Service Commission’s quest to improve access and delivery of justice in Zimbabwe.
Commissioning of the three additional rooms brings the number of court rooms at the High Court in Bulawayo to six.
The court rooms were officially commissioned by the Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, Justice Luke Malaba.
In his address, Justice Malaba said the expansion of the court house was significant in the sense that similar activities were being done countrywide.
“The idea of the creation of the additional courtrooms came out of the realisation at the same time that there were three courtrooms and six judges. That meant that three judges would be in court at any given time. Cases that could have been heard and disposed off were postponed. The system was not conducive to the achievement of JSC’s objective of ensuring access to justice by our people.
“What makes the expansion of the courthouse more significant is that it comes hard on the heels of the recent opening of a new High Court in Mutare in May. These two projects add on to several other access to justice initiatives, which the Judicial Service Commission has been undertaking at all levels,” said Justice Malaba.
He said the JSC had in recent months decentralised operations of the offices of the Sheriff to places smaller towns such as Victoria Falls, Bindura, Chinhoyi and Marondera.
“New magistrates’ courts were opened at Mutasa and Concession. The Master’s office has taken over the deceased estates from the magistrates’ courts in Masvingo, Mutare, Bulawayo and Harare,” said Justice Malaba.
He noted that the JSC’s initiative was working towards seeing to the development of other justice systems across the country.
Justice Malaba also said that the courts would also maintain a decisive stance against cases of corruption.
“We have embarked on a programme of a series of judicial educational and training concepts to inculcate judicial officers the necessary values for fighting corruption,” he said.
Last month 57 new magistrates were sworn into office and deployed across the country to strengthen the judiciary system.
