As the momentum to have some judges investigated for alleged corrupt conduct intensifies, the Office of the Ombudsman has 83 files of complaints about delayed delivery of judgements.
Ombudsman Grace Malera also said one of the matters has taken 29 years for the country’s courts to conclude and deliver judgement.
The revelation comes against the background of continued public discontentment over delayed justice in the courts in spite of repeated assurance from the Judiciary of putting in place strict measures for speedy delivery of judgements.
Malera said in a written response, the 29 years case was lodged with the office in 2008 against the Blantyre Magistrate’s Court for alleged delay in issuing a judgement.
“At the time of lodging the complaint, the matter had been within the court system for 13 years [meaning it was filed in 1995]. The matter is still being pursued by the Office of the Ombudsman,” she explained.
There has been no comment from the Judiciary as acting registrar of High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal Innocent Nebi asked for more time.
According to Malera, her office has been encountering several challenges while following up complaints.
“There are some cases where there is limited responsiveness on the part of the Judiciary. However, the Office of the Ombudsman continues to use the powers available to the office under the law to systematically follow up with, and collaboratively work with the Judiciary, hence, the substantial cooperation from the Judiciary in the other cases. The Office of the Ombudsman will continue to build on these mechanisms to achieve 100 percent responsiveness,” she said.
Between August 2022 and August 2024 the Ombudsman has had 103 complaints in relation to cases that had taken long to be concluded.
From these cases, the office concluded and accordingly closed 20 while the rest are undergoing the complaints handling processes.
The process includes continued engagement with the relevant offices in the Judiciary through correspondence and the “Ombudsman expects to continue recording significant progress on these cases.
“Complaints handling is a process whose progress depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of the cases in question,” she said.
According to Malera, most cases are at investigation stage, while her office has already conducted inquiries in a few.
Since August 2023, the Ombudsman has registered 34 new cases against the Judiciary with the Lilongwe office handling 14, Blantyre has 13 while Mzuzu and Balaka offices have four and three cases, respectively.
However, human rights lawyer Chikondi Chijozi described the situation as unfortunate as the courts are expected to be more responsive considering that their primary duty under Section 9 of the Constitution is to protect people’s rights.
She said: “Unfortunately, the governance systems that the Constitution put in place to protect the rights enshrined in the Constitution are not respected. Delayed justice is justice denied. People also have a right under the Access to Information Act to demand accountability on why such delays are happening.”
On his part, Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs chairperson Peter Dimba described the situation as a serious concern.
