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Fidelis Munyoro

Chief Court Reporter

The justice sector held a high-level conference last week to explore ways to improve the country’s justice delivery system by seeing how those unable to afford legal representation when this would be important can have practical access to such support.

Several factors have been brought up besides the cost of legal representation including laws that could be unnecessarily complex, so requiring a lawyer, and court formalities that create problems for the unrepresented.

The two-day; “Access to Justice and Pro-deo Review Conference”, was hosted by the Law Society of Zimbabwe and deliberated on access to justice and particularly how the poor and marginalised members of the society can enjoy legal services through the pro deo system.

Chief Justice Luke Malaba, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, acting Prosecutor-General Mr Nelson Mutsonziwa were part of the high-level engagement, which drew participants from the legal fraternity, Judiciary, and Prosecutor-General’s Office among other stakeholders in justice sector.

Addressing the participants Minister Ziyambi said his ministry has prioritised access to justice and the rule of law through law and policy reforms, all aimed at ensuring that justice is accessible, both institutionally and geographically.

He said there was need to raise awareness and tell those in the justice sector what is pro deo, who stands to benefit from it and its overall effect in enhancing access to justice.

“There is need to carry out a mapping exercise to establish the geographical location of the service and scope of the services being offered with a view to develop a coordinated approach of offering services which ensures that target groups with greatest need are prioritised,” said Minister Ziyambi.

The pro deo system provides a mechanism whereby a private lawyer provides legal representation to those accused of the most serious crimes free of charge, upon such cases having been allocated by the registrar of the High Court.

For example, all defendants in murder trials must have legal representation and this will be pro deo when the accused cannot afford a lawyer.

But there is no legislation or regulations that creates a framework for the operationalisation of the pro-deo system in Zimbabwe, the pro deo system having developed through practices rather than law.

Minister Ziyambi said Government was seized with ensuring that all accused persons facing capital offences are represented by lawyers from the private practice.

“However, the economic situation in the country which has been exacerbated by natural disasters such as Cyclone Idai and Covid-19 have affected the Ministry’s capacity to fund pro deo lawyers including just meeting their disbursements,” he said.

“The Government has not been able to meet disbursements for lawyers in instances where accommodation, transport and meals may be needed.”

The Legal Aid Act does provide for State responsibility to offer legal assistance to deserving cases but Minister Ziyambi said it had become archaic and his ministry is reviewing the law.

“The current pro deo system requires fine tuning and I am happy by the stance taken by the Law Society in reviewing the current structure and developing what they see as sustainable option,” he said.

Earlier on Chief Justice Malaba in his address noted that achieving the goal of providing for an efficient and effective pro deo legal system was a collaborative effort that involves the development of a statutory framework that takes into account the gaps in the current legal aid system and the parallel pro-deo system.

He said there was need for a more comprehensive statutory framework outlining the roles of all the players in the system including the Judicial Service Commission, the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, the Legal Aid Directorate and the Law Society.

“The various challenges existing in the pro deo system should not be regarded as evidence of failure to facilitate access to justice,” said Chief Justice Malaba.

“Instead, each problem presents an opportunity for reform, growth and collaboration. There would be no point in having the Conference if stakeholders did not acknowledge that more can be done to improve the operation and administration of the pro deo system to enhance access to justice.”