via Capacity crisis hits High Court – The Zimbabwean 29 January 2015 by Brenna Matendere
The High Court of Bulawayo is unable to speedily handle cases brought before it due to a severe capacity crisis that has seen only five judges responsible for handling hundreds of cases from four provinces.
Judge Lawrence Kamocha revealed this week that this means many cases drag on for as long as eight years. He is set to preside over 19 cases at the Gweru High Court. Though only three two-week long sessions are held in the city each year, a total of 221 cases are already awaiting trial.
The five judges based in Bulawayo preside over Midlands, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo provinces on rotational basis. Their workload includes criminal and civil appeals from the magistrates’ courts; criminal and civil reviews; bail applications; cases transferred from the magistrates’ courts to the High Court for sentence; pre-trial conferences, contested court applications; urgent chamber applications; ordinary court applications and applications for default judgements.
In the whole of last year, the circuit in Gweru completed a meagre 17 cases. This left hundreds of suspects in remand prison with pending cases dating back to 2006.
The judge called for measures to be put in place to ensure that the rate offences are committed, match that at which they are cleared. “More and more members of our community are becoming aware of their rights and would not hesitate, rightly so, in my view, to defend their rights if infringed. This means more work,” he said.
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