VICE President George Kunda yesterday launched phase one of the computerisation of the Judicial Court System.
And Mr Kunda said Zambia will be the first African country to employ the usage of computerised judicial system.
Mr Kunda said in Lusaka yesterday that phase one of the project will see the computerisation of the Supreme, High and Magistrate courts in Lusaka.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this launch marks the beginning of a new era for the administration of justice in this country,” Mr Kunda said.
He said this is an important move towards streaming the administration of justice through effective and efficient court management.
Mr Kunda said he is certain the faith and confidence reposed by the citizen of this country in the judiciary would be greatly strengthened by the modernisation project launched yesterday.
The project launched yesterday was made possible with a 75 percent grant of the total cost amounting to US$500,000 by the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF) while the Government provided the rest.
“May I, therefore, take this opportunity to thank the Investment Climate for Africa for the support rendered to our Judiciary through the grant,” Mr Kunda said.
He said he is particularly happy that the grant was put to good use, resulting in the successful implementation of phase one .
“As Government, we are committed to ensuring that the Judiciary’s autonomy is protected and shall do all we can for the Judiciary to work effectively and efficiently.
“To this end, I pledge my Government’s support towards this project by providing the 25 percent counterpart funding on time,” Mr Kunda said.
Earlier, Chief Justice Ernest Sakala said Zambia Justice Information Management System (ZAJIS) appreciates the efforts Government attaches to the Judiciary.
Justice Sakala said the funding from both ICF for Africa and Government had been timely under the project.
[pullquote]“Firstly, it was felt that technology was going to be an important ingredient to the change we sought in our operations by improving the rate of disposal of our cases and also improve the quality of judgements by having accurate records for all proceedings and on time for all citizens,” Justice Sakala said.[/pullquote]
He said the gesture enables the management team to execute its mandate efficiently.
“My appeal to both ICF for Africa and Government is that this trend should continue in the next phase,” Justice Sakala said.
He said the vision of ZAJIS came about by way of an introduction by former Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Dipak Patel, who is now a member of ICF.
“Firstly, it was felt that technology was going to be an important ingredient to the change we sought in our operations by improving the rate of disposal of our cases and also improve the quality of judgements by having accurate records for all proceedings and on time for all citizens,” Justice Sakala said.
Meanwhile, ICF chief executive officer for Africa Mary Issa said the modernisation of the Judiciary falls under one of her organisation’s priority areas, property rights and contracts enforcements.
[Zambia Daily mail]
We hope this is real computerisation that will police records to the court system so that once a person is arrested and charged, the police can allocate a date on which that person should appear in Court. So if this project is well planned, the Police force should also have systems in place linking into the court system. Good start nevertheless.
Remember Gabbage in, gabbage out.
Further To what Lazy Bones has said, the starting point on computerization should be hospitals. When one is bone data(finger prints, name, etc) should be captured and stored. This should link to the National Registration and electoral office such that if one reaches voting age necessary documentational will be readil available. In case of a criminal offence the police should be able to track down the offender using the data base available. The same should apply to migrants, necessar data(finger prints,names etc) should be captured as they enter. This will even help the courts expedite the cases. In case of death, the deceased data should be marked DECEASED by way of NRC withdrawal.
There goes big figures again. Who accounts for this money?? Dora Siliya?
I don’t even need to know the fact to conclude that Kunda is talking nonsense. Exactly what does he mean to say Zambia will be the first country in Africa to utilise a computerised system. For a start the computer literacy levels are so low in Zambia I cannot even begin to imagine how to what extent the system will be utilised by the civil servant in the Judiciay. Secondly as other bloggers have said, you will need properly developed and maintained databases integrated with other key ministries such as Home Affairs for the Judiciary to have access to meaningful data. Being able to produce documents using MS office stored on individual desktops (which I imagine will be the case) can not be called computerisation.. and even brag about it!!