HARARE — A growing number of drug-related and cybercrime cases is piling pressure on Zimbabwe’s magistrates’ courts, prompting the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to intensify recruitment and decentralise court services to tackle the backlog.
Chief magistrate Vongai Guwuriro Muchuchuti told journalists at the swearing-in ceremony of 25 magistrates in Harare on Monday that the changing nature of crime has significantly increased the workload facing magistrates across the country, saying the backlog was “also influenced by what is happening in the country.”
“We are receiving a significant number of drug-related cases, as well as many cases involving digital crimes,” she said. “We must therefore be prepared to deal with these emerging offences.”
Muchuchuti said the JSC was implementing several measures to reduce delays in the justice system, describing the swearing-in and capacitation of additional magistrates as “one of the measures the Commission is taking to address the backlog,” alongside the decentralisation of courts as “another key intervention.”
Authorities were also establishing mobile courts to improve access to justice in busy urban areas, she added.
“These are some of the measures the Judicial Service Commission is putting in place to deal with the case backlog so that we can effectively manage the workload coming before our courts and ensure that we are ready to adjudicate all cases brought before us,” she said.
The latest remarks come months after the JSC swore in 17 new magistrates in March as part of efforts to strengthen the country’s judicial capacity. At the time, Muchuchuti said the new magistrates would be deployed across Zimbabwe to ease mounting pressure on the courts, telling reporters they would go “to various stations throughout the country” as the JSC continued “to capacitate our courts in terms of recruiting more magistrates so that it can balance with the workload which is there.”
Zimbabwe had about 268 magistrates in March against a required establishment of 300.
