BY RICHARD MUPONDE
CHIEF Justice Luke Malaba says exchange programmes between judiciary services of member countries help to identify think-tanks which help in the management of justice delivery system to enhance public confidence.
Malaba was speaking at a meeting with the Zambian judicial officials at his office in Harare yesterday.
The Zambian delegation is being led by its judiciary secretary Nalisebo Imatha.
“You are the think-tanks; you are the thinkers, you think for the system. If a person spends time drinking coffee or spends time on WhatsApp what will happen? If that person just takes two minutes on WhatsApp what will happen to your system? Because it’s a system it should be run in a coordinated way, a coherent way, it’s not like individuals. The moment we make people think that an individual may do whatever they like, we have created problems,” Malaba said.
He said judicial officers should not run to accuse individuals of wrong doing when the system was the one which had shortcomings.
“Don’t start accusing people, officials when, in fact, it’s the institution to blame. But before you can do that you must ensure that the system is not to blame. What’s happening is that while this process is going on I do assessment of judges every month, in fact, every month-end, like now that’s the process I am undertaking at this moment. All the statistics from all the courts, they come in, the performance of every court, the performance of very judge to see how they are performing,” he said.
The Zambian delegation’s visit came barely a month after the government invited a Ugandan Anti-Corruption Court judge to train judiciary officers, ahead of the establishment of new anti-corruption courts.
