The Bulawayo Labour and High courts performed poorly in the first quarter of 2024 prompting the intervention of top judicial officers resulted in improvement in outcomes later in the year.
This was revealed by Chief Justice Luke Malaba when he officially opened the 2025 legal at the Bulawayo High Court on Monday.
Malaba said in 2024, concerns were raised regarding the Labour Court’s poor performance, which had fallen below expectations and commitment was made to engage with the judges to address the challenges leading to improvement being recorded.
“It is important to note that the Bulawayo High Court station had also faced challenges related to poor performance in previous years. In response to this, several interventions were implemented, including a change in leadership at the station,” Malaba said.
“It is heartening to observe a complete turnaround in the performance of the Bulawayo High Court, which serves as a vindication of the decisions made regarding that station.”
In a statistical performance of the courts nationally, Malaba said the consolidated total number of criminal cases received during the period under review in the regional courts division was 6 375, while 500 were re-introduced, which is significantly less when compared to the year 2023, which received a total of 8 777 cases.
“Based on the above figures, the number of criminal cases that ultimately reached the regional courts for determination fell by 22% in 2024. Equally so, the regional division of the magistrates’ court completed a total of 7 284 criminal cases during the period under review, which is relatively less than those for year 2023, in which 10 953 cases were finalised,” Malaba said.
“The civil clearance rate by the end of November 2024 was 99%. 820 civil matters were brought forward from the year 2023 into 2024. 115 458 were received and 6 120 were re-introduced bringing the caseload of civil cases to a grand total of 122 398. Out of these, 121 503 civil cases were completed. In that regard, the clearance rate in the civil courts is encouraging.”
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Malaba said at the provincial criminal court, a total of 79 769 new cases were received, 3 651 cases were re-introduced and 85 274 cases were finalised during the year 2024.
He said a clearance rate of 94% was recorded during the period under review compared to a 93% clearance rate noted during the year 2023.
