Nuusita Ashipala
Ongwediva-Magistrates across the country have gathered in Ongwediva for a weeklong workshop on civil procedure at the magistrate’s court.
Judge Marlene Tommasi of the Oshakati High Court said training of this magnitude shows the commitment of the judiciary to growing the capacity of its workforce.
“We have a wealth of skills amongst ourselves and there is no reason why we should not benefit from sharing and drawing from each other,” Tommasi said. The workshop, which commenced on Monday, is sponsored by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (foundation) Namibia-Angola (KAS).
Tommasi said civil procedure is a specialised field; procedural and technical in nature, where compliance with timeframe deadlines are the order of the day, but the benefit of that is a speedy resolution of cases.
“It is not a glamorous function to do a financial inquiry, but during each financial inquiry we deal with the hopes and aspirations of people, broken dreams, unemployment, desperation, reckless creditors dishing out credit to all and sundry and many other such considerations. We should not lose our humanity in the exercise of our judicial function,” Tommasi said.
KAS together with its partners seek to make a contribution that enables every country to develop in freedom and take responsibility for its own affairs.
In Namibia in particular, KAS has prioritised the rule of law in all its key values.
“We believe that the rule of law can only thrive where there is a strong, impartial and independent judiciary, for only such a judiciary can guarantee and enforce citizens’ rights and liberties,” said KAS representative Anna Wasserfal.
Wasserfal further said this particular capacity building workshop would contribute positively to equipping judicial officers with the necessary knowledge and aid in updating them with latest law developments.
KAS further committed itself to support training of this nature in the future as it strongly believes it will assist in strengthening the rule of law in the country, and therefore also the common good of Namibian society.