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Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
The justice delivery system in Masvingo is set to improve following the construction of a second regional court in the province.

The court, which is in Chiredzi Town, was constructed with the help of Plan International Zimbabwe.

Plan International Child Rights Coordinator, Vincent Muzenda, said at a Victim Friendly Court committee meeting in Masvingo on Friday that the organisation completed the construction of the court building recently and it was now ready for use.

Muzenda said everything was in place for the official handover of the infrastructure to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) this week.

“We’ve completed the building of the regional court in Chiredzi. The court is now ready for use and on Friday next week, we will officially hand over the infrastructure to the JSC,” he said.

Muzenda, who is also a member of the Masvingo regional court’s Victim Friendly Court committee, said the Masvingo regional court was overwhelmed by rape cases as it used to cover all cases from all the districts.

He said the new regional court will cover cases from Zaka, Mwenezi and Chiredzi, among other districts.

“The new court will go a long way in clearing the backlog of rape cases. We realised that there is need for another court in the province, especially one that deals with rape cases involving juveniles. This is our small contribution to the justice delivery system, with special emphasis on the welfare of the child,” he said.

Masvingo has been operating with one regional court for many years. This resulted in some cases taking long to be completed.

The province’s regional court has been trying cases from all seven districts, namely Masvingo, Chivi, Chiredzi, Zaka , Bikita, Gutu and Mwenezi.