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Conrad Mupesa Mashonaland West Bureau

More courts are being opened and built, particularly at growth points in rural areas, to ensure the growing population has access to justice, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has said.

The country’s population, according to the preliminary results of the 2022 Population and Housing Census given by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) last week, rose by 16.2 percent to above 15 million from 2012’s 13 million with Mashonaland West now having 12,5 percent of the total population.

Minister Ziyambi said Government was working on ensuring that judicial delivery services were decentralised.

“It is our fervent hope that we decentralise our judicial service to every part of the nation with President Mnangagwa’s call of not leaving anyone behind,” he said. “We are moving ahead with decentralising the services considering the current population status which indicates that it has risen by over two million.”

Apart from decentralising the High Court, the Government was also going to construct magistrates’ courts across provinces. “We have plans to construct more magistrates’ courts across the country,” said Minister Ziyambi.

“There are, however, some financial implications that are associated, but once availed of funds, we will ensure that services are decentralised to cater to the rising population.’’

Some of the areas that are expected to have magistrate’s courts include Murombedzi and Magunje growth points in Mashonaland West.

The accused from Murombedzi are taken to Chinhoyi, which is also the nearest civil court, while those in Magunje go to Karoi.

Chinhoyi has a modern court complex opened recently and is large enough to have a resident High Court judge, as well as the necessary courtrooms for a wide range of magistrates.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in trying to address and manage court cases, has introduced the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS), where the use of internet services and gadgets has proved to be successful.

One problem found was the poor network in some areas.

Minister Ziyambi said although the nation had recorded an increase in its population, it was of concern that people were not registering to vote.

“There is a challenge with our people about registering to vote,” he said.

“There was an increase in population. In some areas, for example Makonde and Kariba districts, there are low numbers of registered voters and this might see some districts losing wards or constituencies.”