The High Court will sit in the Kavango East and Zambezi regions from 1 to 31 August 2023.
Deputy director of public relations in the Office of the Judiciary, Vikitoria Hango, in a media statement yesterday said the High Court will be sitting in terms of the High Court Act 16 of 1990.
She said the High Court has two designated sittings, the main division which is based in Windhoek, and a local division based in Oshakati.
“The Judge President however may, if he considers it to be necessary or expedient in the interest of the administration of justice, authorise the holding of a sitting of the High Court elsewhere in Namibia,” Hango explained.
In accordance with this, the judge president, in consultation with other stakeholders, identified the need for circuit courts in the aforementioned regions in an effort to promote access to justice. This was seen as a way to alleviate the caseload of criminal cases in the identified regions.
The judge president will, therefore, preside over the circuit court in the Kavango East region from 1 to 15 August 2023. He will then travel to the Zambezi Region, where he will preside over the circuit court there from 15 to 31 August 2023.
The judge president is expected to preside over a total of eight criminal trial cases in the two regions.
“The accused persons and all the witnesses to be called in the eight cases are from Rundu and Katima Mulilo respectively. The regional courts in the respective regions have been designated as circuit courts of the High Court during this period,” Hango noted. -Nampa