Industrial Relations Court in Shambles

By: Thula Chisamba

New investigations conducted by The Malawi Star have shown that the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) is operating in a shambolic state owing to deficient funding.

Information accrued by our team shows that government is failing in its duties by falling short in motivating the judicial staff assigned to hear cases in this court.

Consequently, hundreds of cases are gathering dust without being heard, a thing which has seen many complainants denied justice.

“The court is operating on a shoe-string budget thus you hear many of the plaintiffs still complaining that their cases have not been heard since 2009.

In fact, there are many stumbling blocks rocking the court,” said a source pleading for anonymity.

Adams Jere said that his case is gathering dust at the court, failed to mince his words but is of the opinion that in Malawi, Judicial favors prominent people.

“If it were someone prominent, they would have tried to fix the mess at the court and deliver justice to him. Just imagine my case has been on their shelf for close to eight years now and still there is graveyard like silence from them,” fumed Jere.

Another document seen by our reporter indicates that Jere is among the hundreds of Malawians who are starving for justice due to inadequate funding allocated to the judiciary.

However, reacting to the issue, Chief Justice, Andrew Nyirenda, conceded and confirmed that the judiciary is staggering to operate effectively due to poor funding.

He, however, was swift to claim that responsible authorities are working round the clock to make sure that judicial system works acceptably.

“Justice delayed is justice denied thus being aware of such an adage, we are working tirelessly to make sure judiciary works effectively,” said Nyirenda.

In a familiar development, The Malawi Star has established that despite several calls from the civil society, The Mzuzu high court is still operating without adequate judges.

Judge Dingiswayo Madise mans almost all the cases heard in the high court, which makes him delay in ruling some cases.