Gweru (New Ziana) –The Integrated Electronic Case Management System which seeks to digitize all courts in the country has so far played a pivotal role in access to justice, a senior official has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a function to introduce the system to legal practitioners in the Midlands province at the Gweru Labour Court under the project’s second phase, Judicial Service Commission secretary Walter Chikwana said the IECMS had managed to deal with the disappearance of documents in the courts where it has been implemented.
The IECMS has so far been implemented in the Constitutional and Supreme Courts as well as the Commercial Division of the High Court under phase 1 of the project.
“The IECMS has played a pivotal role in enhancing access to justice in our jurisdiction. Öne of the key challenges that we have had in our courts is the disappearance of files and records because they were in hard copy.
“Now that files and records are in soft copy and are being managed electronically, the challenge of missing records and files in respect of those courts under phase 1 is long gone,” he said.
Chikwana said he was confident that as they moved into the second phase, which included the digitization of the Labour and Administrative Courts on 1 February, those challenges would be eradicated as it was impossible to steal a document that was in soft copy.
“Deleting is next to impossible because of the security features we have put in the system, including back up,” he said.
Chikwana was elated with the response from legal practitioners in implementing the IECMS in the provinces they had already visited.
“Our legal practitioners are the frontline workers when it comes to litigation representing members of the public. It is therefore important that we have their cooperation and they have been participating in numbers,” he said.
Shamiso Muserere, the JSC deputy head digital court said they had e-filing centres in the provinces which would assist in the training of legal practitioners, registering them and helping them file cases.
Speaking on behalf Gweru legal practitioners, Thelma Musoso-Mufumi of Hwende Legal Practitioners welcomed the development, saying it brought convenience to them.
She said although lawyers had become used to the manual system, they were willing to move with the times.
The IECMS is a unifying platform that will connect all institutions belonging to the justice delivery system thereby transforming all courts to become paperless and fully automated.
It will among other things, reduce case backlog in courts and modernize the sector with the JSC aiming to have the system operational in all courts and offices within 36 to 60 months.
New Ziana
