Chakwera demands efficiency from Judiciary

President Lazarus Chakwera has challenged the Judiciary to ensure speedy handling of court cases, signalling that mob justice and some street demonstrations are spurred by inefficiencies in the justice system.

He was speaking in Lilongwe on Ssturday during the swearing-in of Chief Justice Rezine Mzikamanda and seven other newly appointed judges.

They are Gladys Gondwe, Rosemary Kayira, Gloria Namonde, Bruno Kalemba, Patrick Chirwa, Dickson Sankhulani and Chimbizgani Kacheche.

Out of the seven judges, three are female while four are male.

Chakwera said he was “greatly concerned” with the spirit of mob justice “threatening to turn this country into a lawless one.”

“This is evident from the many occasions on which citizens have taken the law into their own hands and punished suspects of crimes by disgracing them…

“These expressions of mob justice are a sign that the Malawian people feel frustrated by the slowness, unfairness, and inefficiency of the justice system, which includes both the way cases are investigated, tried, and disposed of,” he said.

Chakwera then asked the new judges to help address the challenges haunting the delivery of justice.

“In appointing you to the High Court of Malawi, it is my hope that you will each make great contributions to correcting these anomalies.

“The work ahead of you is enormous, and I have confidence in your ability to accomplish it with the speed, fairness, and professionalism that Malawi’s courts have become,” the President said.

In an interview after taking the oath of office and that of allegiance, Mzikamanda said his priority would be to tackle delays in finalising court cases.

“Fighting delays in the courts is one of my priorities…we have talked about delays; we have talked about perception and other challenges the Judiciary faces in terms of delivery of justice. We are prepared to take them head on,” he said.

The Chief Justice also welcomed the addition of seven judges to the bench. He, however, expressed the need for appointment of more.

“[The appointments] certainly improves our situation and we do hope that with these new judges we can improve much better in the delivery of service. But, of course, we will still need more judges because there are still more vacancies,” he said.

Currently, there are 42 High Court judges but according to the Judiciary, the High Court of Malawi has an establishment of 45 judges.