The National Prosecution Authority says it will soon start the construction of a modern court and new offices in Chongwe district.
Speaking when he paid a courtesy call on Chongwe District Commissioner, Evans Lupiya, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Gilbert Phiri noted the need for new infrastructure for both court proceedings and office space.
Mr Phiri thanked the District administration for allocating land to NPA where the court and offices will be built.
The DPP said the institution is detained to ensure that proper infrastructure is built in order to ensure that prosecutors interact with witnesses.
“Imagine how do you prepare witnesses of a defilement case in a one room where other people are also working and doing their things, a child can not be in the same room with perpetrators 60 years after independence,” he said.
“We are going ahead to start building as soon as we get the title to the land as per guidelines, what has been delaying us is also the expensive BOQs that come from the Ministry of Infrastructure, but we will find a way to put up something,’’ he said.
Chongwe District Administrative Officer, Kelvin Ndandanda said there was urgent need to have enough office space so that court dockets can be secured.
Mr Ndandanda also noted the need for more members of staff so that cases can be deposited off as soon as possible.
“The current infrastructure has run out of space such that the four officers are operating from one office where all the dockets are also kept, making it difficult to index the dockets and secure them, justice delayed is more serious than Justice denied,” he said.
He revealed that Chongwe is one of the districts in Zambia that has a large number of cases after Lusaka district.
Mr Ndandanda further said that even the current location where the court is makes it unsafe for members of staff and the accused persons too.
He appealed to the DPP to help Chongwe district have its own correctional facilities so that the accused do not have to move a distance of over 50 Kilometers to come and attend court sessions.
“A court that is supposed to start at 8:00hours or 9:00hrs start at 11:00hours and at 16:00hours court ends, meaning others just come and go back without being attended to, Chongwe has enough land where we can put up a correctional facility to easy things,” he said.
