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Until recently, the people of Mberengwa travelled all the way to Zvishavane town to seek justice. Mberengwa is the biggest district in the Midlands province.
Witnesses and offenders were travelling a distance of about 280km to Zvishavane town to attend court.

Midlands provincial magistrate,  Mrs Pathekile Msipa, said the Mberengwa magistrate courts were opened last week.
She said a number of cases have already been heard at the new courts.
Mrs Msipa said the move will help improve the justice delivery system as it will help ease pressure at the Zvishavane magistrates courts.

“All Mberengwa cases which were being heard at the Zvishavane magistrate courts in the past have been transferred to Mberengwa. We hope the new development will help clear the backlog of cases as well as ease pressure at the Zvishavane magistrate courts,” she said.
Mrs Msipa said the opening  of Mberengwa courts was also going   to reduce cases of defaulting attending court by both suspects and witnesses.

“In the past we used to experience a lot of challenges in dealing with Mberengwa cases. Witnesses were not willing to travel the long distance to Zvishavane resulting in the courts taking too long to clear some cases,” she said.

Mrs Msipa said her office was making frantic efforts to secure accommodation for the magistrate whom she said was still commuting from Zvishavane daily.
The establishment of the courts will come as a relief to the district which also has a very poor road network.
Mberengwa district has four constituencies. Some parts of the district are not accessible owing to poor road network and transport operators are as a result shunning the district.