Africa-Press – Botswana. The Administration of Justice has taken an initiative to hire graduates and train them in-house for stenography for more efficient way of reporting court proceedings in real time.
Answering a question in Parliament on Monday, Minister of Justice, Honourable Machana Shamukuni explained that training a court reporter in stenography in-house took a minimum of 18 months, adding that so far, the Administration of Justice had already trained two batches of 20.
“There are plans to continue training 20 more in the next financial year.
The Administration of Justice now has 36 stenographers to be used for its 106 judicial officers,” he explained.
The minister said the estimated cost of procuring a stenography machine for all courts of law included the cost of a stenography machine which stood at approximately P55 000 while the accompanying software license was approximately P4 000 and the annual subscription fee of P880.
He said the Administration of Justice had 130 court reporters, which put the overall estimated cost of the machines at P7.2 million and licenses fees at P520 000 and annual subscription fees at P114 400, all which amounted to a cumulative total of P7.8 million.
He said the Administration of Justice had engaged the Botswana Public Service College regarding the training of court reporters in stenography, with a possibility of training them in more modern ways of transcribing court records.
Minister Shamukuni was responding to a question from Member of Parliament for Okavango, Mr Kenny Kapinga who had asked if the minister was aware of the duration of transcription of records of proceedings by the lower courts for transmission to appellate courts. Mr Kapinga had indicated that the duration caused delays in the hearing of appeals and applications at superior courts. He said this led to considerable prejudice to appellants whose applications for bail pending appeal remained for a long time due to unavailability of a transcribed record of proceedings.
Mr Kapinga also asked the minister to also state the measures in place or plans that would be instituted to ensure swift transcription of records of proceedings.
Regarding measures in place to ensure swift transcription of records of proceedings, the Minister said the swift transcription required a pool of court reporters per court, circulating as it happened in Parliament for production of the Hansard.
He said such would allow court reporters to take down proceedings at intervals and transcribe them while proceedings were ongoing.
Minister Shamukuni said the solution would require a considerable increase in the number of court reporters, which were not available in the market, adding that court reporting was a skill that was scarce.
Giving background, Minister Shamukuni explained that the duration of transcription of records of proceedings by the lower courts for transmission to appellate courts due to the amendment of the Rules of the Magistrates Court in 2011. He said Order 48 (2) of the Rules of the Magistrates Court allowed the court reporter to, in any criminal trial, record in shorthand verbatim and the note would constitute the official record of the proceedings of the case.
He said currently, each judicial officer had one reporter and that the court sittings, especially at magistrates’ court were from Monday to Friday from morning until 4:30pm.
This, he said meant that the same court reporter who spent the whole day in court had to transcribe the proceedings at the end of the day or whenever they were not in court.
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