Africa-Press – Angola. The Cuanhama District Court, Cunene province, has only seven judges, an insufficient number to meet the procedural demands of the region, which has one million, 17 and 491 inhabitants, said judge-president Afonso Pinto this Thursday.
The judge said that to fill this gap, at least 20 judicial magistrates would be needed to speed up the processes.
Afonso Pinto clarified that due to the shortage of judges, of the four thousand and 27 cases that should be handled in 2023, two thousand and 797 will be carried forward to 2024.
He said that this action has provoked many complaints and complaints from citizens, which increases the levels of discontent among users and the feeling of impunity on the part of offenders.
“The complaints never end and the public will always complain about the slowness of the processes, but it is humanly impossible to meet the expectations of those who come to the Court”, he considered.
He made it known that the court’s policy is currently to work on what can be done, with priority falling on criminal cases involving detainees.
“It would be desirable to have more judges, due to the current population density, and in each area of jurisdiction (civil, family, labor and minors) there should be two to three magistrates”, he highlighted.
Despite the lack of judges, he stated that magistrates have struggled to cope with the volume of work, which is why there are no cases of excessive pre-trial detention in the province.
Currently, Cunene has the Cuanhama District Court and a generic jurisdiction room in the municipality of Cahama.
Two districts are planned in Cunene, one in Cuanhama, based in Ondjiva, which is responsible for processes in the municipalities of Cuanhama, Namacunde and Cuvelai and the other in Xangongo, which will serve the municipalities of Ombadja, Cahama and Curoca.
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