Tanzania is planning a feasibility test on the viability of e-justice that will be carried out by ZTE Corporation as the backlog of court cases mounts.
The project is expected to resolve the backlog of cases in the country, with Mathias Chikawe, minister for constitutional and legal affairs, telling parliament more than 266,135 cases are pending in courts of law across the country – 197,715 of which are in primary courts, Tanzania Daily News reported.
Chikawe said: “I would like to inform Parliament that e-justice project is progressing and that the Chinese government has agreed to finance the project.
“A feasibility study of the project is being carried out by a Chinese company, ZTE Corporation, and the project will be implemented in three phases” said Chikawe.
Already the judiciary in Tanzania has launched a Judiciary website meant to give easy information access to the public as well as make it easier for judges to record proceedings.
The process that cost the Tanzanian government US$2.7m with a contribution from the Investment Climate Facility involved the scanning of case judgements dating back as far as 1979 so as to create a judiciary internal database.
The e-justice project will work to speed up the delivery of cases, especially some that are decades old, once the feasibility studies have been completed and the project begins.
