09 Sep 2020

The Industrial Court would, during the remaining part of the Eleventh National Development Plan (NDP 11), introduce virtual courts.

The Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Mr Mpho Balopi, said this when presenting the Industrial Court’s portion of a mid-term review of NDP 11.

He said the advent of  the COVID-19 pandemic had necessitated establishment of such courts to enable judges to work remotely. The court also intended to introduce e-filing to enable litigants to file their pleadings remotely.

Furthermore, Mr Balopi said the Industrial Court would during the same period, introduce a Case Records Management System (CRMS), to facilitate tracking of files, and automatic allocation of files to judges, adding that the system would be able to give statistics of cases handled by the court. 

He said the Industrial Court would also procure vehicles for transportation of the judges pursuant to government’s  approval for upgrading of official vehicles for judges of the High Court, Court of Appeal and Industrial Court in 2018.

He also said the pandemic had magnified some of the challenges relating to operations of the court, adding that previously, most of the processes of the court had been manual, which adversely affected operations of the court during the two lockdowns.

On other issues, Mr Balopi said, in an endeavour to take justice to the people and to promote access to justice, the court had introduced a semi-permanent court in Maun and plans were under way to open another one in Selebi Phikwe.

“Currently Maun is providing the services of registration of cases and serving clients with court documents. 

The court is in the process of swapping buildings with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as the building they currently occupy suits the needs of the court better,” he stated. 

Mr Balopi said progress on development of the Selebi Phikwe semi-permanent court was currently at 95 per cent and it was expected to be completed during this financial year.

Furthermore, he said during the first half of this reporting period, the building of Gaborone division of the court had five courtrooms, which housed seven judges. To augment the courtrooms, a branch of the court, with two courtrooms, was opened in Block 3. 

Parliament also learnt that the court continued to hold circuit courts in Kasane, Palapye, Letlhakane, Ghanzi, Jwaneng, Maun and Selebi-Phikwe.

In order to facilitate the speedy disposal of cases, he said, the court had introduced Judicial Case Management System where upon registration, a case is allocated to a judge so as to enable him/her to control the pace of litigation by cutting out unnecessary delays and postponements. ENDS