It has emerged that the lack of working space for the High Court of Malawi Commercial Division in Blantyre has stalled at least 1200 cases.
The court has not been hearing full trials since it was moved out of Mpico House, formerly MDC House, along Glyn Jones Road in Blantyre in July last year to pave the way for maintenance works.
Ironically, the Commercial Court has a purpose-built building located along Independence Drive which is nearly complete, but not in use.
under construction in Blantyre. | Macmillan Mhone
Yesterday, Vice-President Michael Usi met the Judiciary, contractor of the Commercial Court building SR Nicholas and subcontractors to resolve payment issues delaying the completion of the building.
Speaking after the meeting,
Judge in-charge of the High Court Commercial Division Chifundo Kachale said delayed cases include recently registered cases as well those carried over.
He said: “There is a lot of work that has been affected by our failure to access court premises. When I came here in November last year, I had a list of about 240 cases in my own court.
“Today, there are over 20 court summons that have been filed this year and need to be assigned to judges.”
Kachale also said the completion of the purpose-built Commercial Court Division has delayed because the government owes the subcontractors payments.
Meanwhile, a task force comprising the Judiciary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Solicitor General and Department of Buildings has been set up to determine the amount of money owed.
According to Kachale, the contractors have committed to carry out the works within three weeks after payments are made and the target is to open the building by February end.
The outstanding works include installation of electrical equipment, court recording equipment and closed circuit television equipment.
In an interview yesterday, High Court of Malawi and Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal acting registrar Innocent Nebi said the original amount owed to the subcontractors was about K184 million.
“But this amount will be revised upwards,” he said.
Last year, the Malawi Law Society expressed concern that the stalling of cases at the Commercial Court was negatively impacting on commercial court practice and the business community.
Construction of the four-storey Commercial Court Division building started in 2010 and has taken up about K4 billion.
