Industrial Court Registrar, Dr Patrick Makgabenyana says the industrial court is struggling to resolve a backlog of cases dating as far back as 2010.
Makgabenyana stated at the on-going Public Accounts Committee that currently there are more than 7000 cases that have not yet gone for trial.
He said that most of the cases were brought to the court by aggrieved employees who were seeking recourse in relation to termination of work, unfair dismissals and other work related disputes.
Makgabenyana said that most of the cases never went under for trial. He said they are hoping to come up with other dispute resolution mechanisms to reduce the backlog.
He stated that they are also intending to hire more judges to dispose the matters before court in a short period of time. Hiring more registrars is also on the cards.
The registrar also emphasized that they have set a target for disposing all the cases before them at 2016.
Makgabenyana indicated the delay in implementing judicial case management has contributed to the backlock.
He said that the project to put up a judicial case management was shelved due to lack of funds. Makgabenyana stated that the judicial service management will help them to speed up to dispose cases before them.
He said that most of the work such as filing was done manually which delay the process.
However the Public Accounts Committee was concerned that most of the aggrieved citizens were not provided with help for a long time. The committee advised Makgabenyana to come up with solutions to the backlog.
