Govt set to improve working conditions for magistrates

Government has disclosed that it will this year improve the working conditions of magistrates throughout the country.

And Government says it will improve the court infrastructure to facilitate a
conducive, effective and efficient administration of justice.

Justice Minister George Kunda said government is aware of the complaints by the
magistrates that their salaries are low hence the need to improve the working
conditions.

He said inadequacy of personnel especially at the magistrate level has continued to
affect the performance of the Judicature .

He said for a long time, the judiciary has been forced to operate below its
establishment of magistrates thereby negatively affecting the case disposal rate.

The Minister added that a backlog has been created at a number of stations
especially in rural areas where there are no magistrates.

The Minister said this in a policy statement in parliament on estimates of
expenditure for Judiciary that government will take in a bid to take justice closer
to the people by increasing the number of court houses.

He said the current court houses in a number of places have been in a state of
dilapidation adding that others have collapsed due to the heavy rains experienced
this year.

” This year’s budget provision has been made to construct court houses in each
province,” he said.

The Minister disclosed that government has initiated plans to turn the Venus
Theatre buildings in Kabwe into a courthouse which will house the High court and
Supreme court.

And Mr. Kunda said the judiciary has made headways in the transfer of staff from
the Public Service Commission to the Judicial Service Commission.

He said the exercise is scheduled to be completed by mid this year.

He said the move will complete the process of delinking the judiciary from executive
administration to an autonomous status.

Following the enactment of the Judicature Administration act of 1994, judiciary has
been undergoing restructuring .

Contributing to debates, Bangweulu MP Joseph Kasongo urged government to improve on
the working conditions of magistrates.

Mr. Kasongo who is also Patriotic Front (PF) MP expressed sadness that government
only attended to the needs of magistrates when they went on strike.

He also implored government to ensure proper accountability of the resources raised
from the operations in judiciary.

Chifunabuli MP Enerst Mwansa urged government to revisit the marriage act which he
said in its current state does not give protection to property once owned by the
deceased.

Chasefu MP Chifumu Banda accused government of paying attention to the grievances of
judges during election petitions.

He said improvement in conditions of service should cater for both magistrates and
judges.

He however commended the minister of Justice for increasing the number of lawyers at
the Legal Aid department.

Meanwhile government has disclosed that it has proposed to allocate more than K1
billion in the Trust Fund in this year’s budget so as to pay beneficiaries of the
deceased.

The Justice Minister explained that the Trust Fund had remained without funds due to
lack of accountability.

He said when the money was being transferred from Standard Chartered Bank in 2000,
not all the money was deposited into the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO)
account.

He further added that some documents went missing in the process.

ZANIS