Lack of resources cripple judicial system � Dibotelo
Lindiwe Mozola | Tuesday August 1, 2017 16:26
Dibotelo was speaking at the annual judicial conference held here last week.
The conference, which was held under the theme, ‘Judicial reforms 2008-2017: Achievements and Challenges’ attracted judicial tribunals across the country to introspect and tackle the judicial reforms and to interrogate the challenges faced by the judicial system.
Delivering his keynote address, Dibotelo emphasised that he will devote what remains of his tenure as CJ to advocate and ensure that the funding of the judiciary, especially and its stakeholders takes centre stage.
He said: “Whilst we appreciate the support the government has extended to the judiciary to ameliorate the situation such as the provision of vehicles and caravans for special stocktheft courts as well as buses for special traffic courts, much more still needs to be done. The same applies to the replacement of old vehicles for judges.”
Furthermore, the CJ said the shortage of registry clerks, both at the magistrates’ courts and high courts, adversely affects their performances, which have impacted negatively on their reforms.
He revealed that in some places such as Kang, Gantsi, Nata, Bobonong and Serowe, magistrates have to share one courtroom and this has impacted negatively on the performance of the courts.
“The time has come to unfreeze the projects for the construction of magistrates courts in places like Gantsi and Serowe. Moreover, funds must be availed by the government to build court facilities in these and other areas.” He added: “We have in the past, as we continue to do, done our very best with the little made available to us to deliver quality justice to the inhabitants of our country. However, the truth is that even with our greatest efforts at re-engineering our processes and the incremental use of technology, the shortage of human and financial resources continues to cripple our best plans.”
Dibotelo said although they are faced with many challenges, there are some achievements that ought to be acknowledged as well as the positive impact on the judicial reforms during the period 2008-2017.
He explained that they introduced and adopted the Court Records Management System (CRMS) in 2005 in their quest to improve the delivery of justice in the country.
In 2008, they facilitated yet another reform, the Judicial Case Management (JCM), which fundamentally changed the system for the better. He said prior to the JCM, they were struggling with a huge backlog of mostly dead and unburied cases such as litigants who delayed or frustrated progression of the cases. The JCM reform has therefore from inception steadily and gradually expedited service delivery, resulting in quick and increased case disposal rate.
He said during the period from February 1, 2017 to May 31, 2017, 2,480 civil cases and 419 criminal cases were registered at the three high courts divisions of Francistown, Gaborone and Lobatse. During the same period, a total of 2,757 civil and 328 criminal cases were completed including cases brought forward. In percentage terms, this he said translates into 11.2% and 78.3% completion rate for civil cases and criminal cases respectively.
At the magistrate’s courts, 4,218 civil cases and 2,209 criminal cases were registered additionally in the same period. Magistrates’ courts completed a total of 6,993 cases and 1,697 including cases brought forward.
“This disposal rates by the standard of well-functioning judiciaries in democratic countries are very impressive. Ladies and gentlemen, I commend all judicial officers, stakeholders and staff for a job well done. However, we are not to bask in this glory and rest on our laurels as more work still needs to be done,” added Dibotelo.
He said to further improve the manner in which they discharge their duties, they will be exploring the introduction of E-filing to further enhance access to justice as part of CRMS application.