Minister takes on judiciary

Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo has challenged the Judiciary to improve on case management to build the trust of court users and clear frustrations over its performance.

Speaking yesterday during the opening of a magistrate’s court in the island district of Likoma, he said he will continue to engage the Judiciary to ensure that cases are disposed-of within reasonable time.

Mvalo said speedy disposal of cases will build the trust of the public in the country’s justice delivery system and send a strong message to offenders that breaching the law will attract sanctions or punishment.

He said: “I expect the Judiciary to dispense justice speedily and fairly because the environment has been created for them to do so. We all get frustrated with delays and we hope that with provision of more courts, judgements will be provided with speed.

“I must say that the Judiciary, on its part, must raise their game and strive to ensure that judgements are provided within a reasonable time, but also in a truthful manner.

“We hear of corruption in the Judiciary. We can’t say it is not happening, but we can also not be certain because we don’t have evidence in relation to that. But surely, some strange things happen and raise suspicions.”

In an interview on the sidelines of the opening of Likoma Magistrate’s Court, Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda said there has been progress on delays and admitted that the Judiciary is hampered by many challenges, including resources.

The sentiments come after the Judiciary in 2018 warned that judges risked disciplinary action for failing to deliver judgements on outstanding cases. And in May this year, Mzikamanda issued a 90-day ultimatum for High Court of Malawi judges to complete all outstanding cases.

On progress made to date, he said the Judiciary put in place some strategies to speed up the processes.

Mzikamanda said: “We are making a lot of progress and I am satisfied with the progress that we are making and we will continue to make. Mind you, the cases don’t accumulate in one day, it happens over a period and so the delivery of those judgements will be periodical, step by step.

“Of course, there are challenges and there are specific reasons for those challenges, but we are trying to address those challenges. We will deal with this issue of delays once and for all.”

He mentioned inadequate resources as one of the challenges affecting the sector.

“The challenges are resource-constraints and judgements are of different calibre. Some of them are simple while others are more complex and require a lot of input,” Mzikamanda said.

In July this year, Anti-Corruption Bureau director general Martha Chizuma observed that the public wanted instant results which was not possible.

She said: “The public wants results today and now. They want an arrest and a conviction the same day. It does not work like that.

“These are very complex matters and even for the case of [United Kingdom-based businessperson Zuneth] Sattar, it’s a case that we are dealing with a lot of information, intelligence that we have to sieve through and bring out the real issues.”

While decrying delays by the courts to conclude matters, Chizuma pleaded with the public to understand that the corruption problem was not created in one day, but over decades, as such, it will not be dealt with in one day.

For some time, court users have been complaining of delayed justice delivery. n