Story by Peter Chivhima
IN a bid to strengthen the administration of justice as part of its 2025 outlook, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is collaborating with traditional chiefs in the execution of its mandate.
This was revealed by Judicial Service Commission Secretary, Mr Walter Chikwana in an exclusive interview with the ZBC News.
“We are going to interact a lot, you will see as we move on with our traditional chiefs. We have taken a position as the Judicial Service Commission that we need to support and adequately resource them. It is very clear that these customer law courts are part of the judiciary and the customer law courts matter in that, courts are adjudicated upon by our chiefs.
“So, if they are part of the judiciary, we have an obligation as the Judicial Service Commission to support those courts. Most importantly, we need to support them in terms of use development, where we have mandated the head of the judicial training institute to get somebody to start a training programme for those chiefs so that they observe for example the rules of natural justice,” he said.
Mr Chikwana also revealed that this year, the JSC will focus more on collaborating with its stakeholders.
“We are going to put a lot of emphasis on collaborations with our stakeholders. We have realised that our stakeholders play a critical role in the justice delivery system in the country.”
The 2025 legal year is set to start on the 13th of January, with Bulawayo hosting the main celebrations as the JSC takes a leaf from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s decentralisation policy which has recently seen national events being held on rotational basis across provinces.
