Brighton Chiseva
Masvingo criminal, civil and high courts in 2021 heard 1149 domestic violence and 90 divorce cases, Supreme Court Judge Justice Paddington Garwe revealed recently.
The statistics were released during the official opening of the 2022 legal year held at Masvingo High Court on January 10, officiated by Justice Garwe.
Speaking at the event, Justice Garwe said Masvingo Magistrate’s’ court carried over 20 domestic violence cases from 2020 and recorded 1129 new cases over the year 2021 bringing the total to 1149 cases.
Of that total, 1126 cases were completed leaving 23 cases that were carried over to 2022.
No reason was raised as the cause of such a high number but women organisations noted that the number of domestic and gender based violence cases was on the rise during the lockdown periods.
Other matters at the court were small claims which had two cases from 2020 and 152 new cases making them 154. Of the number, 142 were completed and 12 were left pending by closing of year 2021.
On civil matters it carried 46 cases from 2020 and received 839 new cases making a total 885. Of those 846 were completed leaving a 39 outstanding.
All in all, the court opened the year 2021 with 68 matters and received 1120 new cases. The total workload rose to 2188 cases and 2114 were competed and the backlog rose from 68 to 74.
On the same note, the High Court’s civil division recorded 90 divorce cases in 2021. The court had two outstanding cases from 2020 making them 92. 91 cases were completed leaving one case outstanding.
In total the High court civil division opened the year with 18 cases and received a total of 406 cases. They all equaled to 424. Of the total 382 cases were completed leaving 42 outstanding.
Other civil matters at the High court included ordinary chamber applications, opposed matter, trials, urgent chamber applications, civil appeals and unopposed excluding divorce.
The Magistrate court’s criminal division started 2021 with 325 pending matters and received 5203 matters. The workload increased to 5528 while 5090 cases were completed leaving the backlog at 438.
Of the total, 5199 criminal cases were recorded after carrying over 324 cases and they totaled to 5023. Of that number 5088 were completed leaving 435 cases pending.
The court also received four anti-corruption cases after carrying forward one case from 2020. Of the total, two were solved leaving three cases outstanding.
The criminal court received 967 matters. Considering that there were eleven outstanding cases, the workload rose to 978. 966 matters were completed by end of 2021 leaving 12 outstanding.
Of the total, it had 36 trials and four outstanding cases from 2021 making them 40. 30 of the cases were completed leaving 10 cases pending.
Other cases were 391 bails, 459 reviews which were all completed and 75 criminal appeals of which 73 were completed leaving two pending.
The same court started the year with three reviews and received 456 and had a total of 459 and all the cases were completed.
The court also received 13 applications which were all completed leaving no outstanding matter.
It started the year 2021 with only one court appeal and received 74 new appeals making them 75. 73 were completed leaving two outstanding.