Windhoek
New rules for the Supreme Court will be introduced shortly. This was announced by Chief Justice Peter Shivute when he made his annual state of the judiciary speech at the opening of the legal year 2016.
He said a layman’s draft of the new rules has already been finalised and once promulgated will greatly assist
the court to deal expeditiously with its work.
He said the Supreme Court judges finalised all 32 judgements reserved during the three terms of the court
in 2015, averaging a finalisation rate of 100 percent.
Although a record number of 25 appeals have been set down for the first session of 2016, he is confident
that by the end of this year the only cases waiting for a date will be those registered in late 2015 and early 2016, at the rate the setting down of appeals is managed.
He also said the e-justice system – a web-based court management programme that enables legal practitioners
to commence and prosecute proceedings electronically without having to be physically at court until the matter is called in court – will be implemented soon.
The office of the judiciary now has 879 judicial officers and staff members. While it is a daunting task to accomplish its mission with such limited resources, the members of the judiciary are raring to build a vibrant and professional
office, he said.
According to the chief justice one of the challenges the judiciary faces is the ever increasing number of criminal cases, which stands at 19 277 countrywide.
According to Shivute, since he and Deputy Chief Justice Petrus Damaseb went on a familiarisation tour of all the magistrates’ courts, they were able to identify a number of factors that contribute to the delay in the finalisation of criminal matters.
“Some of these include about 30 functions that most magistrates’ courts provide on behalf of 11 ministries, offices and agencies and in some instances even when such institutions have offices in towns where the agency services are rendered,” he said, adding that such services range from revenue collection, issuing of meat export permits, issuing
of permits for the importation of household pets to the registration of political parties.
As a result of these agency services, dedicated court time is compromised, he stated. According to Shivute,
limited resources remain key to the challenge of the speedy finalisation of cases and cannot be under-toned.
However, he said, “I am convinced that if a paradigm shift is adopted, we can put those scarce resources to
work in our favour.” On a positive note, the chief justice said, the installation of digital recording systems in magistrates’ courts has already yielded results as trials are now expedited as opposed to the former longhand technique.
Another highlight of the year under review was the recent Aspirant Judges Training Programme which took place in December 2015, he said, and added that it was a pioneering intervention aimed at grooming qualifying magistrates
and staff members for possible appointment as High Court judges.