JSC vows faster courts as digital system leaves officials’ footprints

Gweru- Zimbabwe’s Judicial Service Commission (JSC) says the digitisation of courts is speeding up the disposal of cases and creating electronic footprints that expose delays by judicial officers and court officials.

JSC Secretary Dr Walter Chikwana said this while addressing journalists at Gweru Magistrates’ Court yesterday following the rollout of the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS) in Midlands and Mashonaland West provinces.

Chikwana said the digital system had already produced measurable improvements in courts where it had been deployed, particularly in reducing case backlogs and improving the speed at which matters were processed.

“We have realised and we have noticed that we have empirical evidence that the disposal of cases, the efficiency of our courts is heightened,” Chikwana said.

“It improves, and we've really dealt with our backlog very well in our superior courts, and even in the magistrates' courts which are already under the digitisation programme.”

He said IECMS was also changing the way litigants interacted with the courts by allowing them to track the progress of their cases without physically visiting court offices.

“With the click of a button, you are able to monitor, able to see where your case is, what is happening with your case, and you are able even to communicate and interact with the court using that gadget,” Chikwana said.

But beyond convenience, Chikwana said the digital platform was creating a trail of activity that could be used to hold court officials accountable when they failed to meet stipulated deadlines.

“When a clerk of court receives some documents, be it summons, applications, there are certain time frames in which they are expected to deal with those matters,” he said.

“If they go beyond those time frames, again, the digital platform, the beauty about it is that it leaves footprints.”

The system, he said, would allow JSC officials to identify where delays were occurring and determine whether intervention was necessary.

“Whenever we do our checks and monitoring and evaluation, you'll see that there is some slowness with this clerk of court. There is some noncompliance with this judicial officer, and we look at ways in which we can assist that judicial officer,” Chikwana said.

The JSC has been rolling out IECMS in phases, moving from individual courts to a province-wide approach.

Chikwana said eight provinces had now been covered, including Midlands and Mashonaland West, which commenced the latest phase yesterday.

He said the improvements were already evident in both superior courts and magistrates’ courts operating under the digital system.

For members of the public, Chikwana said the fundamental expectation remained simple — cases must be heard and determined without unnecessary delays.

“Members of the public, when they go to court, they are not interested in anything but you go to court, you want your matter to be heard, you want a decision to be made,” he said.

“That’s all that they want. And that must be done without any delays.”

Chikwana said the JSC was already looking beyond the current IECMS rollout, with plans to introduce artificial intelligence and a mobile application to improve access to the system from 2027.

Currently, users access IECMS through the website, but the JSC plans to introduce a dedicated mobile application after the system has been deployed across all courts.

“As we go into 2027, after we have deployed IECMS in all our courts, the next issue is to consolidate it and to have better features that make it easy for all persons that are using IECMS,” Chikwana said.

The JSC also plans to establish e-filing offices at police stations and community courts, bringing digital court services closer to communities.

Chikwana said the next phase would also seek to improve accessibility for people with disabilities through technological enhancements, including artificial intelligence.

“We intend to leverage on artificial intelligence to improve the system,” he said.

“It includes, obviously, issues on members of the public with disability challenges.”

The JSC says the expansion of IECMS is part of its broader drive to modernise Zimbabwe’s justice delivery system while improving efficiency, transparency and accountability across the courts.