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Sydney Kawadza Mashonaland West Bureau Chief
The new Chinhoyi Magistrates’ Court has the potential to house other upper courts, a situation which would be taken into consideration when the building is complete, Chief Justice Luke Malaba has said.

The Chief Justice toured the court building which has been under construction for more than 20 years with work being abandoned on several occasions due to a variety of challenges including funding constraints.

The single-storey building with basement compartments will have 53 offices (23 on the ground floor and 30 on the first floor), eight courtrooms, eight holding cells, eight detention cells, two libraries, four kitchens, four storerooms and two strongrooms.

“We look forward that the building will house a modern court, modern magistrates’ court. Not only that, we need to look at the question of how we are going to utilise that building, the facilities.

“There are numerous offices here, two big libraries, big court rooms, all the facilities that are required for a modern court are found here,” he said.

Chief Justice Malaba said the Judiciary Service Commission would want the complex to be complete within the set time limits.

“We are desirous to see that this building is completed within the timeframes that have been agreed on and we have agreed that the next major work left is putting up the roof and the contractor has assured us together with the officers from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, who are in charge of this building, construction and development.

“That can be done at least by the end of June, failing of which, definitely by end of July and therefore we are all excited and we would want that programme followed through so that soon after that we can get to tie up other aspects of the construction to come up with a finished product,” he said.

The Chief Justice was accompanied by JSC secretary Mr Walter Chikwanha, Mashonaland West provincial magistrate Mr Tayengwa Chibanda and other seniod Government officials.

He applauded workers for simultaneously working on completing all aspects of the construction.

“I must say that if this construction is completed at the pace that we anticipate and seeing the standards of the offices that are going to come up, the work that is going to come up, we will have one of our best structures delivered to us in the country.

“So why don’t we all look at doing exactly that by the end of the year. I am sure we can and we should aim for that so that we can come here and rejoice with the people of Mashonaland West.

“This is their capital city and we need to deliver, as a Government, structures, these facilities that ensure that easy access to quality justice to them and that is the policy of the Judiciary Service Commission.”

He said the JSC strived to deliver structures, facilities, and human capital that is able to ensure access to speedy justice delivery to the people.

The new courts are expected to ease space challenges for both court sittings and staff offices with the makeshift courts housed at the old Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital have only three courtrooms and a few rooms used as offices.

Court sessions are sometimes conducted at the Makonde district administrator’s offices during busy periods, while the civil courts, including one court room and the clerks’ office, are housed at another Government complex.