As the magistrate’s court continue to bear the brunt of the criminal caseload in the country, the office of the judiciary has been allocated a budget of N$375 662 000 for the 2020/21 financial year.
In the 2019/20 financial year alone, 49 127 cases were handled by the district and regional courts with a finalization rate of 48% achieved.
Closed cases amounted to 23 442 while the Justice minister Yvonne Dausab lamented that the finalization rate leaves a lot to be desired.
She said the dismal performance is due to a multiplicity of factors, chief among them being the fact that there are only six regional courts with nine magistrates all over the country on a circuit basis.
These serve 19 towns.
From an approved structure of 104 posts for magistrates, the magistracy has a filled ratio of 90% posts translating into 94.
“Although this percentage might seem impressive, it still begs the question whether the number of magistrates per courtroom is proportionate to the population of court users and cases on the roll,” said Justice Minister, Dausab.
