NPA raises the bar with over 90 percent case clearance rate
THE National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has cleared much of its backlog of cases and now only goes to trial when the investigations are complete, so trial postponements are not needed, new Prosecutor General Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo said yesterday.
More than 90 percent of criminal cases were cleared in December last year as the introduction of strict guidelines around case management bear fruit.
In most cases now, the trial is over within a week and the verdict given one way or the other without the huge delays that used to occur as postponements were sought to gather more evidence or track down witnesses.
Under these new measures, it is now a requirement that investigations be completed before a case is brought to court and case postponements have been banned unless there are compelling reasons, Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo said, soon after paying a courtesy call on Justice, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi with the recently appointed NPA board.
“The NPA has introduced a lot of measures to ensure that there is efficiency in the prosecution of matters. We have come up with timelines within which matters must be finalised. Since last year, when I took over, I have given directions to all prosecutors that we only take matters that have been concluded, that is where investigations are complete.
“That is the only matter we take into court, and once we take those into court, we ensure that within the week, the matters are finalised.
“Postponement of cases is a rare thing that you find now,” she said. “I think for the month of December, our clearance rate was 92.3 percent, which is very high indeed. You have heard from the Chief Justice’s speech at the start of the legal year that he is very happy with the rate of clearance of criminal matters,” she said.
Minister Ziyambi said the NPA board was now in a position to take control of the situation and steer the NPA in the right direction.
“What we spoke about is that they have a lot of work to do and the body is supposed to take care of the human resources issues to ensure that all outstanding issues, be it in terms of disciplinary issues or employment issues, are addressed.
“We have a lot of vacancies, and the Prosecutor General as chair now has to steer the ship; she now has a board; and we can now have our National Prosecuting Authority functioning effectively.”
The nine-member board, led by Justice Matanda-Moyo, expressed its commitment to working with the minister to address the issues facing the NPA and justice delivery.
Minister Ziyambi said President Mnangagwa appointed Justice Matanda-Moyo as the Prosecutor General to ensure that issues to do with delays and backlogs in the justice system are addressed.
“That’s the major reason why, when His Excellency was reelected, he immediately appointed the Prosecutor General to deal exactly with those issues so that she could come up with a plan so that we could improve efficiencies in the prosecution section,” he added.
Several milestones were recorded countrywide last year as the country moves to clear backlogs.
Opening the 2024 legal year at the Masvingo High Court recently, Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe Justice Mary Zimba Dube applauded Chinhoyi High Court for working tirelessly to achieve a clearance rate above 98,5 percent.
Constitutional Court Judge Justice Rita Makarau also paid glowing tribute to the two judges at the Masvingo High Court for completing a record of nearly 2 100 cases last year which equates to a case clearance rate of 99 percent.