Malawi NGOGender Coordination Network (GCN) has decried the slow pace at which courts are handling defilement cases .
The Network’s Chairperson Barbara Banda and Acting High Court Registrar Kondwani Banda observed that some defilement cases are taking a long time to complete, attributing this to workload and lack of evidence in some cases.
The two were commenting on a Malawi Police Services report which shows that in 2021 the country registered 2,387 defilement cases, out of which 684 cases were completed.
While admitting that justice systems in the country is overloaded due to less manpower and more load to work into, the activist asked the justice system to prioritize the handling of defilement cases.
“It is a great concern that sometimes defilement cases in our courts take more than two years to be completed which is retrogressive,k,” said Barbara adding: “We are all interested in justice delivery.” MANA