The country’s Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda has given a 90-day ultimatum to all High Court judges to wind up and deliver judgments on all outstanding cases.

Acting High Court and Supreme Court Appeal Registrar Kondwani Banda disclosed the development during an interface with the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts.

In an interview, Banda said the ultimatum has been issued in order to clear a backlog of judgments that have been in the country’s courts for many years.

“We are overwhelmed, the number of judges is much on the lower side, mind you Malawi’s population is getting to 19 million but we have a low number of 50 judges against the 19 million population.

People are complaining, people want to see justice delivered and it’s also our mandate but also our strategic plan is to serve people better,” he said.

The acting Registrar added that the it is in the interest of the Chief Justice to serve people well by clearing outstanding cases in time.

Said Banda: “What it means is that those that have outstanding issues need to sort out the issues, deliver the judgements if they have challenges he [Mzikamanda] has offered them to give them [judges] help.”

Commenting on the development, the Committee has described the ultimatum as timely saying it will assist in expediting outstanding cases.

“We welcome the development, because justice delayed is defeated but now with this we know that there will be efficient use of resources,” said Shadric Namalomba, the Committee’s Chairperson.