Beverly Bizeki
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) recorded an impressive case clearance rate in Masvingo during the 2023 legal yeardespite the High Court being short staffed running with only two judges.
This was revealed by Justice Rita Makarau, who was guest-of-honor, at the official opening of the 2024 legal year on January 8 in Masvingo saying the Masvingo High Court civil division received 638 cases in total and completed 609.
“The Masvingo High Court Civil division commenced with 15 cases and received 623 cases to have a total workload of 638 cases. 609 cases were completed leaving 29 pending cases. The clearance rate for 2023 was an impressive 95.5 percent,” said Justice Makarau.
The criminal division of the High Court recorded 97.6 percent while the magistrates’ courts also cleared nearly 7000 cases.
“The Criminal division commenced with six cases and received 1 448 cases to have a total workload of 1 454 cases. 1 420 cases were completed leaving 34 pending cases. The clearance rate was another impressive 97.6 percent.
“For the magistrates’ court a total of 7 147 criminal cases were received during the course of the year and 6 974 cases were completed. A similar feat was achieved in the civil division where a total of 3 820 cases were received. Out of those, 3 744 cases were completed leaving a balance of only 76 cases to be brought forward into 2024,” said Justice Makarau.
Justice Makarau said she was happy that the challenges faced by the courts over the past year did not have any adverse impact on the backlog at Masvingo High Court.
“The backlog is not alarming and the clearance rate of cases is astounding considering that the High Court is still being manned by two instead of three judges,” she said.
Justice Makarau also implored JSC to consider gazetting Mwenezi as a regional court in order to cut down on travelling distances in the province.
The theme for this year’s legal year is ‘the role of the judiciary in entrenching constitutionalism.’
