The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE High Court in Mutare as well as the magistrates’ courts in Manicaland have significantly reduced the backlog in cases, a development that has been attributed to the hard work of the law officers manning the legal institutions in the province.
This was revealed by Constitutional Court Judge, Justice Paddington Garwe, who was the guest of honour during the official opening of the 2023 Legal Year at Mutare High Court today.
Justice Garwe commended the province’s courts for continuing with good work, saying both the Civil and Criminal divisions of the High Court had achieved a 100 percent clearance rate.
He said: “I am pleased to note that the good work that the courts in this province have been doing has continued. In the Civil Division of the High Court, despite a 70 percent increase in the workload, the year 2022 witnessed a 100 percent clearance rate.
“The Criminal Division also achieved a 100 percent clearance rate. As regards the Magistrate’s Court, the backlog in criminal cases was reduced to 638 from an opening balance of 762 cases.
“The reduction was the result of hard work on the part of the magistrates in the province and the offloading of all cases that warranted the jurisdiction of the Regional Court. That offloading unfortunately led to the increase in the number of cases before the courts. Despite this, however, the Regional Court, Eastern Division managed to complete 933 cases having commenced the year with 858 cases.”
He commended officers of the law for the good work.
While similar gatherings were observed in different parts of the country, with the main event in Harare, members of the Magistracy, National Prosecuting Authority, Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Law Society, senior counsels were represented during the event in Mutare.
The theme of this years’ official opening of the Legal Year is: “Promoting competence and quality of service to enhance public confidence in the judiciary”.
