Kopano Olesitse
4 November 2009
Francistown — The President of the Customary Court of Appeal in the North, Christopher Masunga said the presiding officers, Dikgosi and court clerks are faced with many challenges such as lack of training in judicial matters.
"It is a serious issue because we see that people complain in the way the cases are recorded from these courts because they miss important details of the case at times.
The other problem facing Customary Courts is that of insufficient resources especially computers and Information Technology (IT) training," said Masunga. The result is that many cases are referred to the Customary Court of Appeal leading to delayed justice.
Masunga added that they have programmes in place to address the problems. "In the past two years, we have had eight workshops all over the country aimed at addressing this skills shortage. About 150-200 presiding officers attended training. The modules covered during training includes the operations of the Customary Courts, the way the High Court affects Customary Courts and the judicial system," he said.
He stated that the training of presiding officers was made possible by the department of Tribal Administration with financial assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Masunga said presiding officers inherit the positions and are not appointed based on specific training. He said Customary Court clerks do not hold any qualifications except the Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE).
"The main challenge that the Customary Court of Appeal is faced with is lack of a supporting statute. There is need for an Act that will merge all the Customary Court of Appeals in the country because as it stands, it seems as though all Customary Courts of Appeals are independent (of each other)," he said.
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