Courts under pressure due to heavy case load

By Hertta-Maria Amutenja

THE Namibian district court’s criminal division recorded a total of 38 482 criminal cases, of which 19 607 were new cases for 2018/2019 financial year.

According to the judiciary annual report released last year, the situation in the district courts has not improved and they have been faced with a high case load of criminal matters.

“The magistracy has been challenged with alarming high case loads for criminal cases relative to the available number of magistrates and resources.

Although the figures for 2018/2019 are not much of an improvement compared to the previous year (2017) , the magistracy has shown commitment in improving such by employing various strategies and tactics aimed to reduce case loads per division,” stated the report.

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