08 Jun 2014

The Judicial Case Management System (JCSM), a tool that seeks to reduce the backlog of cases within the justice system, was never implemented at the Industrial Court due to the economic meltdown.

Responding to questions from members of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee on June 6, the accounting officer of the Industrial Court, Dr Patrick Makgabenyana said the case management system was suspended on account of economic meltdown that hit the world in 2008.

Dr Makgabenyana explained that this was the reason why the Industrial Court still had a huge backlog of cases carried from the past.

The accounting officer further submitted that the Industrial Court was working on the 2010 backlog, adding that in order to address the problem, three judges out of the seven that the Industrial Court had been assigned to deal specifically with the backlog of old cases.

He said the decision was taken in order to avoid cases to go into fully blown trials, adding that the Industrial Court was faced with the serious shortage of manpower because the seven judges that the court has are not enough to service the whole country.

Dr Makgabenyana submitted that there is hope that things will improve as time goes on as the Industrial Court is still a growing department.

However, he agreed with committee members that people at the deeper end in rural areas and farms are faced with many problems to reach the services of the department.

 He said the introduction of circuit courts at the Industrial Court is meant to take justice closer to the people.

One of the committee members, Mr Prince Maele, Tswapong North MP had wanted to know what strategies are in place in order to reach out to the people in rural areas and farms, regarding issues of labour relations as some who are lowly paid by their employers. ENDS