HARARE – Chief Justice Luke Malaba has admitted that the much-maligned online portal for filing court applications and accessing judgements caused widespread disruption in the legal system in 2023, but he insists there has been an improvement.
He was giving speaking at the official opening of the judicial year in Harare on Monday.
The Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS) is designed to allow for digital handling of court cases. Litigants, lawyers and judicial officers need a stable internet connection and gadgets such as laptops. They must also be registered on the IECMS platform.
Malaba said the third phase of the implementation of IECMS at the High Court was met with unexpected setbacks which exposed inadequate preparation and training.
“The third phase of the implementation matrix arrived with the introduction of the IECMS in the General Division of the High Court and the Office of the Sheriff on September 1, 2023. It came with more challenges than had been experienced during phases one and two in the other courts,” Malaba said.
“The problems encountered impacted on the smooth flow of cases and at some point frustrated litigants and legal practitioners.”
He noted that the challenges were not legal in nature because the laws which saw the successful implementation of the digitisation programme in the previous two years in phases one and two were the same laws used during the implementation of phase three.
Malaba said the challenges were also not system-based, because the same system that was being used in all the other courts which were working perfectly well was the same system adopted in the General Division of the High Court.
“The diagnostic assessment which the JSC’s technical department carried out revealed that the challenges encountered emanated from the large volumes of cases and the high number of litigants in that Division of the High Court,” he explained.
“Those numbers congested the system. When the system went live, many legal practitioners wanted to be linked to the system at the same time.
“Members of staff in the Registry and ICT Departments were clearly not ready for the simultaneous massive response. The internet connectivity, particularly at Harare and Bulawayo High Courts, was overwhelmed.
“The e-filing offices established at those courts became overcrowded because legal practitioners, who also appeared to have been caught off-guard, chose to visit the offices and exploit the availability of the required gadgets and the internet facilities at the courts.
“At the same time, the virtual hearing platform was being equally oversubscribed. Admittedly, more legal practitioners practise in the General Division of the High Court and the Magistrates Courts than any other courts.
“They faced challenges manoeuvring through the system because of lack of knowledge of how the system worked.
“This led to the perception and assumption that it was the system that had problems. The situation was compounded by the fact that the JSC’s own members of staff in the registries had not completely grasped the essentials of the system. As a result, they failed to adequately and properly attend to litigants and system users’ requests.”
Malaba however noted that the issues have been looked at and have improved, also apologising for inconveniences made.
The chief justice said a raft of measures designed to effectively respond to the challenges was introduced. An alternative internet service provider was engaged with the view that when one internet provider faced challenges the other would come on board.
Internet hubs were established at both Harare and Bulawayo High Courts.
The hubs have capacities to accommodate a large number of legal practitioners at the same time. Urgent training was arranged for all members of staff in registries in addition to theoretical and practical capacitation for all lawyers.
In addition to these measures, the Secretary of the JSC visited every province to check the functionality of the system and to engage with the legal practitioners in those provinces with a view to understanding the challenges they were facing in order to effectively address the problems.
A twenty-four-hour help desk and a toll-free centre were established to ensure real-time and uninterrupted attendance to challenges which the system users could be facing among other things.
