Let there be free and fair elections – Judge

Speaking during the opening of the new High Court legal year today,

Justice Susan Mavangira said the referendum and elections were expected this year. These, she said, were important milestones in the country`s history and they present a window of opportunity for the reduction in crime and establishing building blocks for peace and harmony.

She said this was critical as principals in the coalition were singing the chorus of non violence to the public.

Mavangira said society has to make a conscious and deliberate decision to bring about the values of resolving disputes by non violent means.

“Lets the children now being born and those growing up not witness violence being used as a dispute resolution mechanism. That should hopefully put an end to the perpetuation of the culture of violence.

“It may also put an end to the now common place and very disturbing media reports of very young children brutally and sometimes fatally assaulting other children for frivolous and petty issues. In this regard the youngest age that I recall reading about in the media recently is six years. That, in my view, should jolt us a society to realize that something must be done to curb, and possibly eradicate this culture of violence,” she said.

She urged community leaders to look into the issue of violence and devise ways of minimizing the incidences of unnecessary death in their respective communities.

She said a completely violent free society would enhance positive development at all levels of society “Until that cultural value is achieved, an efficient justice delivery system that is supported by all stakeholders is in my view, the best alternative to that ideal.

Such a system also ensure that the recipients of penal sanctions particularly custodial sentence are reformed and rehabilitated and do not recede into criminal activities again thereafter,” she said.

Turning to the performance of the court, Muvangira said, in 2010 a total of 21 cases were set down for the three circuits courts for that year and 12 were completed. In 2011, she said 30 cases were sat down and 16 of them were competed.

“In 2012, the High court on circuit at Mutare was scheduled to hear a total of 31 cases.19 of these cases were completed. The other 11 could not be heard for various reasons including non availability of witnesses and failure to locate accused persons who would have been granted bail,” she said, adding that a surge in domestic violence and murder cases were a cause for concern.

Mavangira said the biggest challenge that the Mutare High court faces is limited time allocated, which is 10 working days.