Following the official opening of the 2026 Legal Year, a sharp divide has emerged between the leadership of Zimbabwe’s judiciary and prominent legal experts over the true cause of the country's mounting case backlogs.
While Chief Justice Luke Malaba issued a stark warning that the justice system is facing an "untenable situation" due to a desperate shortage of judges and magistrates, Professor Lovemore Madhuku has rejected this narrative. Madhuku argues that the root of the problem is not a lack of staff, but "deep-seated procedural inefficiencies" that turn swift legal matters into years-long marathons.
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Chief Justice Malaba reported that the nation’s legal burden is currently carried by only 80 judges and 250 magistrates. He called for a "dramatic increase" in appointments to prevent the judiciary's constitutional mandate from collapsing under pressure.
However, Professor Madhuku countered that for a population of roughly 16 to 17 million, the current judicial bench is "actually quite significant."
“I do not agree that we have too few judges," Madhuku stated. "What we have not fundamentally changed are the court procedures, which are inherently slow.”
A centerpiece of the 2026 judicial strategy has been the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS). While the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has lauded the system for modernizing the courts, Madhuku highlighted persistent technical hurdles:
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