The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Sunday News Reporter
JUDICIAL officers in Bulawayo have raised a red flag over the overcrowding at Tredgold Building — where the magistrates’ courts are housed — revealing that this was impacting negatively on their security.
The courts which have over the past few months been undergoing renovations share the building with a number of other Government departments. Speaking during a tour to assess the renovations at the courts, Bulawayo chief magistrate, Mr Munamato Mutevedzi said the courts were fast losing their value due to overcrowding, noting that some unscrupulous individuals were now taking advantage of that, posing as bogus legal practitioners thereby conning unsuspecting members of the public.
The tour was attended by Chief Justice Luke Malaba, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi, Local Government and Public Works Minister, Cde July Moyo and the Minister of State for Bulawayo Metropolitan Provincial Affairs, Cde Judith Ncube.
Mr Mutevedzi said there was a need to address the overcrowding problem so as to restore the status of the courts of law.
“We have serious overcrowding within this building because there are various departments who also occupy this building so it was our hope that resources permitting and other challenges having been overcome measures could be taken to decongest the building so that it becomes a workable environment.
“Because of the overcrowding that happens here we are grappling with issues to do with bogus legal practitioners and a lot of underhand dealings end up taking place in and around this building. At times we do not know who is coming to court and who is not coming to work, we can’t even enforce the stop and search measures that are done at other court houses hence security is highly compromised,” he said.
Mr Mutevedzi said with the prevailing scenario the decorum required of any court house has now decayed as people came into the building willy-nilly.
“The Labour Court is also housed in this building and the space that they occupy is not sufficient for a superior court so it was our idea that with resources permitting we could expand the Labour Court so as to give the decorum that is required of a court of that magnitude.
“It is also very difficult here at Tredgold Building to control traffic that comes into this court house, if you see even outside this building it is very difficult just to get parking, even to meander your way into the building it’s a hustle that members of staff including judicial officials have to grapple with on a daily basis,” he said.
Earlier, magistrate-in-charge for Bulawayo Metropolitan, Mr Enias Magate had revealed that the four storey building also housed 12 other Government departments. In his address, Chief Justice Malaba bemoaned the state of affairs at the building saying this was compromising the delivery of the country’s justice system.
“There can never be a marriage between illegality and justice so activities of an illegal nature must never be part and parcel of the justice system be it externally or internally. We hope that those activities in the environs or surroundings of Tredgold Building that are not wholesome must be stopped and I don’t think we should have a compromise on that issue,” he said.
