By Antony Chawagarira
HARARE — The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is accelerating the rollout of the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS), with all courts in Zimbabwe expected to be digitised by the end of the year.
The latest phase of the programme will see courts in Midlands and Mashonaland West provinces coming online on October 1, leaving Harare and Bulawayo as the only provinces yet to be covered.
JSC Secretary Dr Walter Chikwana said the commission had already deployed IECMS in eight provinces and was now completing the rollout to Magistrates’ Courts, which handle the majority of litigation in the country.
“Currently, we are deploying the IECMS in the last court, which is the Magistrates’ Court, and we have been doing so on a province-by-province basis,” he said.
Dr Chikwana said preparations for the Midlands and Mashonaland West rollout were at an advanced stage, with the JSC conducting training and awareness campaigns while equipping courts ahead of the October 1 launch.
He said digitisation had already resulted in improvements in case disposal rates and the speed at which matters were being handled in provinces where the system had been introduced.
“There has been a huge improvement in terms of our case disposal rates, the speed at which matters are being disposed of in our courts. There has been a huge improvement in all the courts in those provinces which have benefited thus far,” he said.
Dr Chikwana said the system had also improved access to justice by making it easier for people to interact with the courts.
The IECMS allows litigants, legal practitioners and other court users to file documents electronically, monitor cases and access selected court services without relying entirely on paper-based processes.
JSC Deputy Secretary Rosalie Katsande said the Midlands and Mashonaland West rollout formed part of Phase 4.4 of the national court digitisation programme.
“This IECMS Day is to ensure that court users are familiar with the system before it goes live in the Midlands Province and in Mashonaland West Province,” she said.
Ahead of the rollout, the JSC has deployed national trainers to work with court officials, legal practitioners, members of the uniformed forces, traditional leaders and members of the public.
The commission has also established e-filing offices and internet hubs to assist court users with registration and electronic filing, while plans are underway to establish additional facilities at selected police stations and chiefs’ homesteads to improve access for rural communities.
Katsande said court recording and transcription machines were being installed, while laptops and computers were being issued to judicial officers and other members of staff.
The digitisation programme began in 2022 when President Emmerson Mnangagwa commissioned the country’s first paperless court during the opening of the Commercial Division of the High Court.
It has since been extended to the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, Labour Court and divisions of the High Court, with the JSC now taking the system to Magistrates’ Courts.
“With Midlands and Mashonaland West Provinces coming on board, we will be left with Harare and Bulawayo, for which plans are at an advanced stage to digitalise the two remaining provinces by year-end,” Katsande said.
The Gweru awareness campaign brought the electronic justice system closer to residents through music, drama and poetry, with performers demonstrating how members of the public would register, file documents and track court matters electronically.
Gweru resident Knowledge Pedzisi said the awareness campaign had helped ordinary people understand that IECMS was not only meant for lawyers and court officials.
Another resident, Oscar Mapfumo, said electronic access to case information would save court users time by reducing repeated trips to court to check the progress of their matters.
The system is also expected to address challenges associated with missing or misplaced court records through the secure electronic storage and retrieval of case information.
Dr Chikwana said once the nationwide rollout was completed, the JSC would focus on consolidating the gains made while exploring emerging technologies.
“Our target now is to consolidate what we have done. After we have finished the first stage of deploying and digitising all our courts, the next stage will be to consolidate those gains, to make sure that we keep ourselves abreast of the new technologies that are being introduced in court digitisation,” he said.
He said the Judiciary would also explore the use of artificial intelligence in line with the Government’s broader artificial intelligence strategy and policy.
