12 Mar 2014

Parliament has been told that 6 013 cases were reported to the Industrial Court from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2013 and out of the number, only 3 355 cases were resolved.

Responding to a question from the Member of Parliament for Lobatse, Mr Nehemiah Modubule, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu said the disposal rate was unsatisfactory and the number of judges had increased from seven to nine to address the situation.

He said the Francistown division of the Industrial Court was now fully operational and that circuit courts had been held in various towns and villages. Furthermore, the minister stated that a backlog reduction strategy was being implemented and as part of the strategy, three judges of the Industrial Court in Gaborone were specifically dealing with all cases registered before 2010 while the other four were simultaneously handling cases from 2010 to date.

MP Modubule had asked the minister the number of cases that were reported to the Industrial Court during the period April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2013 and how many had since been resolved.

The Lobatse legislator had also wanted to know whether the minister was satisfied with the disposal rate, and if not, what he was doing to address the situation. Ends