By STAF REPORTER
NAMIBIA’s Judge President, Petrus Damaseb, recently delivered a report aimed at getting people to be aware of the roles played by the judiciary system after a familiarization tour of various judiciaries. The report was themed “Promoting access to justice in the High Court of Namibia: first report, the case of judicial case management.”
The report speech was read in front of several distinguished guests who included the Prosecutor-General of the Republic of Namibia, Mrs Martha Imalwa-Ekandjo, the Ombudsman of the Republic of Namibia, Mr John Walters, Presidents of the Society of Advocates and President of the Namibia Law Association, Raymond Heathcote and Lucius Murorua and members of various media houses.
Delivering the report, Damaseb highlighted the need for the people to clearly understand the judiciary system as it affected every citizen regardless of their socio-status.
“Those of us in the leadership of the judiciary have an obligation to continuously assess whether the procedures and processes by which justice is delivered are fit for purpose. Since becoming Judge-President of the High Court in December 2004, I have tried to understand the factors that impede the efficient delivery of justice by the High Court,” he said.
Damaseb who has been serving his tenure as Judge President for six years now, also spoke of how he had come across during his time.
“In the six years or so that I have been in this job I have been making some attempts – with the help of my colleagues and successive registrars – to introduce reforms to make justice delivery more in tune with the demands and expectations of an increasingly critical and frustrated public. I am still not satisfied that we are meeting public expectations. The public expect a judicial process that is affordable, transparent, accessible, fair, impartial and easy to understand; and one that dispenses justice reasonably speedily.
“That is the standard against which to measure the performance of the High Court. The system for justice delivery remains congenitally slow and woefully expensive. The more I ponder the problem I have come to the realization that the system is what it is because the procedures we are using to deliver justice have not kept pace with change,” said the Judge President.
The Judicial case management recently undertook a familiarization visit to four jurisdictions in order to learn what other Courts have done or are doing to deal with the problem of delay and case backlog in the judicial system. The jurisdictions that they visited are: The North Gauteng High Court, Botswana, Malaysia and Singapore.
“The report which we are unveiling today concludes that the High Court of Namibia has not been able to accommodate all the cases that litigants wish to have enrolled during a particular court term. Regardless of the value of the claim involved, or the complexity of a matter, in this jurisdiction trials tend to be long-drawn-out, invariably punctuated by incessant postponements resulting in many matters becoming part-heard and taking quite long to be re-enrolled for completion.
“The net result of all that is a phenomenon manifesting itself in “case backlog’’ the most visible manifestation of which is that fixed civil trials, criminal trials, opposed motions and criminal appeals are not readily allocated court time in the shortest time possible. For this reason, there is a generally held belief amongst the public that justice is not speedily dispensed in Namibia,” Damaseb said.
The Namibia judicial case management is recognized as a legitimate public interest tool that once commenced, litigation must progress with due expedition so that a matter is finalized and in that way to free up Court time for other cases.
“Based on the findings of the familiarization visit, that the appointment of more judges, unless seen as part of an all-encompassing reform programme, is not necessarily the panacea to solving the problem of case backlog. I can now safely state that the variant of the civil adversarial process such as is practiced in Namibia – in which litigants and their legal representatives dictate the pace and intensity of litigation – is greatly responsible for case backlog and that the time has come for the High Court to introduce judicial case management.
“Judicial case management involves the Court actively managing cases to facilitate their early disposal. The judges regularly enquire about progress in the case and give directions that move the case forward. The emphasis is on narrowing areas of dispute for early and streamlined adjudication and keeping down the costs of litigation as much as reasonably possible,” he professed.
Damaseb ended by saying that his hopes lie in helping everyone understanding the report as it has a role to play in shaping the lives of ordinary citizens.
“I hope that the report leads to a fundamental rethink of the way things are done at the moment. We must give judges greater control over the process of litigation. Court time must be equitably and sensibly managed for the benefit of the entire society – not just those who happen to be litigating at a particular time.
“What we do at the courts affects the lives of people. It affects people’s livelihoods. It affects business and can attract or chase away investors. It is now accepted that foreign investors lose interest in a country whose Court system is bad. Our court system is independent and of high professional standard, but it is very slow and costly. We cannot pretend that all is well. We have to change, for people’s lives and livelihoods depend on what we do,” he concluded.
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