Zim Online
Tuesday 16 January 2007
HARARE - Zimbabwe Judge President Rita Makarau on Monday broke with
tradition to openly criticise President Robert Mugabe's government for
undermining the judiciary by starving it of resources and reducing it to
"begging for its sustenance".
In an alarming admission that the country's worsening economic crisis - that
has seen the government struggle for resources - had virtually crippled
justice delivery, Makarau for example said the High Court last year failed
to travel to Masvingo province to hear hundreds of criminal cases simply
because there was no money.
The High Court, which Makarau heads, permanently sits in Harare and the
second largest city of Bulawayo while it periodically visits the other major
centres across the country to preside over cases.
"It is my view that the place and role of (the) judiciary in this country is
under-appreciated," said Makarau in a speech to mark the opening of the
first term of the High Court this year.
"It is wrong by nature to make the judiciary beg for its sustenance. It is
wrong to make the judiciary beg for resources from central government. It is
wrong to make the judiciary beg from any other source," Zimbabwe's first
woman head of the High Court said.
Court libraries were barely functional, while judges and magistrates had to
make do without adequate computers or basic stationery but more frightening,
according to Makarau, was the way corruption was beginning to take root
among judicial support staff chiefly because of the poor salaries they are
paid.
She said: "Reports have reached my office . . . that support staff in the
courts are engaging in corrupt practices. While these reports are alarming,
one can understand without excusing such conduct. Salaries of support staff
are not commensurate with their place in the administration of justice."
The Judge President said constant appeals to the Ministry of Justice that
handles the budget for the judiciary had been fruitless with the ministry
maintaining it did not have cash.
Contacted for comment Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said he was still
on leave and busy at his farm and unable to discuss work-related matters.
"I am on leave until February 8, 2007. Call me then I might be able to
comment," said Chinamasa.
Zimbabwe has for the past seven years been gripped by a debilitating
economic crisis, shown by the world's highest inflation rate of more than 1
000 percent, rocketing unemployment, shortages of food, hard cash and just
about every basic survival commodity.
The economic meltdown, described by the World Bank as the worst in the world
outside a war zone, has also seen Mugabe's government scrounging for cash to
pay for day-to-day operations.
For example, state hospitals that are the source of health services for the
majority of Zimbabweans are barely functioning because doctors and some
nurses are on strike demanding more pay.
The government admits health workers deserve more money but says it does not
have enough in its coffers to bankroll the 8 000 percent salary hike doctors
are demanding to cushion themselves against the rampant inflation.
But Makarau criticised the way in which the well-heeled both in the
government and the private sector are always able to find enough of the
scarce hard cash to import groceries, including expensive cars from
neighbouring countries or to send their children to schools in foreign
countries while key national institutions such as the judiciary were
crumbling because of lack of resources.
She said: "When shortages of certain grocery items manifest themselves in
local supermarkets, we shop in neighbouring countries. We have managed to
avoid what we perceived as shortcomings in the local education system by
sending our children to schools and universities in South Africa, Australia,
United States and the United Kingdom.
"When we need complex medical procedures and attention that the local
hospitals cannot now provide, we fly mainly to South Africa but sometimes to
the UK or the USA. Yet, when we have to sue for wrongs done to us, we cannot
do so in Australia or South Africa and have to contend with the inadequately
funded justice system in the country." - ZimOnline