Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Chief Justice (CJ), Prof Ibrahim Juma, yesterday advised the new Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr Sylvester Mwakitalu, to observe three key guiding principles when performing his duties in the whole chain of dispensation of justice to citizens.
Prof Juma gave such piece of advice at the State House in Dar es Salaam a few minutes after President Samia Suluhu Hassan administered the swearing in oath of Regional Commissioners and other senior leaders, including the DPP, who were appointed recently.
The Head of Judiciary of Tanzania pointed out that in the exercise of powers and performance of his functions, the DPP shall observe the need to do justice; the need to prevent abuse of legal process in the justice delivery system and the public interest.
“So he (DPP) is the first filter in justice and he should be a man of the highest integrity because he cannot be interfered with by anyone. Even the Chief Justice cannot interfere with his performance,” he said.
On the question of public interest, Prof Juma insisted that the DPP should listen to what people are saying, why they are complaining and where there is a problem.
He recalled that in 1985, the position of the DPP was mentioned in the ordinary statutes, but there was a change in the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania where his status was increased and made him part of the Constitution and was given the three principles which are very important to consider.
“In 1985 before the change in the law, the DPP was able to receive instructions from the President. But when his status was constitutionally recognized, no one was allowed to interfere with his duties. He cannot receive any instruction from anyone,” the chief justice said.
He, therefore, invited him to visit the websites of the judiciary where there were many posts of various data so that he could identify areas with significant delays in the delivery of justice to the citizens.
“We have set a time limit for hearing of cases, and those which have stayed long are marked in red. I urge the DPP and the Director General of PCCB to visit the websites of the judiciary so that you can know the challenges leading to delays of cases and plan how to resolve them,” said Prof. Juma.
The Chief Justice gave an example, saying that yesterday morning he got a chance to visit the website in question and identified 301 cases at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam alone that have entered the red line and are now considered as backlog cases.
Another thing he asked the DPP and PCCB Director General to do is to go through various legislations and find out whether there were any shortcomings so that an initiative is made to review them, because the existing laws were enacted a long time ago and citizens now want justice to be delivered on time.
The Chief Justice, therefore, promised to co-operate with the two officers who are key stakeholders in the dispensation of justice because they are all involved in administering justice.
For his part, Speaker of the National Assembly, Job Ndugai asked the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) to embrace justice for all people.
He said it was the right time for PCCB to work on complaints that it was filing groundless charges as a result of failure to bring evidence for the suspect to be convicted.
