Judge President Justice George Chiweshe has proposed that the Labour Court be empowered to execute arbitral awards in labour matters so as to ease pressure on the High Court, which is currently grappling with a backlog of untried cases.
By Tatenda Chitagu
Currently, the Labour Court registers an award with the High Court, which will enforce the rulings, bringing delays in execution.
Officially opening the 2017 legal year at the Masvingo High Court on Monday, Chiweshe said the proposal is yet to be implemented.
“To ensure that we maintain a manageable backlog of untried cases, we shall, henceforth, adopt the following interventions: That the Labour Court be empowered to execute arbitral awards in labour matters. That is still to be actioned,” he said.
Chiweshe said the staff compliment of judges in the High Court did not increase last year and this has also added pressure of work on the 31 current judges.
The Masvingo High Court was officially opened in May last year and started being operational in September. It has, however, made great strides in bringing justice delivery to the doorstep of the people in the province after completing 14 of the 19 criminal cases received during the four-month period, as well as hearing 86 of the 90 bail applications received, according to statistics provided by Chiweshe.
A total of 193 criminal reviews were received from the magistrate courts and 150 of them have since been completed, while all six urgent applications received were all completed.
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A total of 11 appeals and 29 criminal trials have been set down for hearing in the first term of 2017.
