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Plight of primary court magistrates worrying
2008-07-11 09:24:12
By Editor
The task of primary court magistrates can be described as a challenging one. They preside over all kinds of cases, including those involving crime, domestic relations and local disputes.
They have to monitor court proceedings to ensure that all applicable rules and procedures are followed.
Judging from the fact that they have to attend on several cases on daily basis because of manpower shortages, their sitting for long hours in the courtroom can be tiring.
Like other employees anywhere else, they are entitled to job satisfaction and proper motivation, and appropriate working conditions.
They operate under the judicial arm of the government, while those who prosecute the cases, namely the police, fall under the umbrella of the Executive.
Whoever is conversant with the working conditions of primary magistrates in Tanzania, he would agree that generally speaking, their conditions can best be described as pitiable.
To start with, a large number of primary court magistrates operate in ramshackle premises located in remote areas, some in dilapidated school buildings, others in cracked rented houses which are also partially accommodating other tenants.
To add salt to the wound, they lack decent accommodation and are totally unprotected. These are the people we have entrusted to bring justice to the majority of the Tanzanian population who are at grassroots level.
For quite a long time, the plight of these low level dispensers of justice has almost gone unnoticed, such that many of them had sought reprieve in drunkenness of illicit local brew, or transforming themselves into locality demigods who trade their verdicts for favours or reckless blackmailers.
Yet there are some, we daresay a few, who are steadfast in their duty in spite of the harsh living and working conditions they are in.
It seems that the pitiable state of premises of local magistrates has come to the notice of the higher ranks in the Judiciary.
Yesterday, we published a story from Arusha that informed our readers that Judge Kiongozi Salum Massati had ordered the closure of a primary court in Ngorongoro District because the magistrate was sharing the court office with the police, while the place also served as a police remand.
The magistrate reportedly told the Jaji Kiongozi that the working conditions compromised fair and just determination of cases.
He said he was often threatened with eviction from the house he was renting when he refused to favour a party in a case, especially when it involved a relative of a village politician.
In addition, the magistrate had no chair to sit on but had to borrow a bench from a nearby primary school.
This particular case tells it all. The administration of justice in the lower strata of our society stands the risk of collapsing, if the above-narrated story is taken into account.
One doesn`t need to conduct a survey to establish how the rural people view our country`s judicial system, because the existing conditions expose magistrates to the danger of succumbing to law-breaking forces.
Of recent, the government has manifested its intentions to beef up the work of higher courts, namely the High and Appellate courts.
We suggest that it should now introduce a holistic approach that will revamp the whole national judicial system.
Sad to say, the village people usually tally the government’s performance with the way they see justice administered at their level.
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