Hela needs more magistrates

National

Hela administrator William Bando says the province needs more magistrates.
“Many court cases are still pending because there is only one magistrate serving the province,” he said.
Bando raised this concern following the high number of cases that are adding up and still pending.
“When there are lots of cases and only one magistrate, he cannot deal with all of them at once,” he said.
Bando said this was because as police continued to arrest people, cases were piling up.
He said the province usually faced disadvantages when the magistrate was on duty travel and cases accumulated.
“We need more magistrates, at least two would be good, otherwise police might be  discouraged to carry out their law and order duties,” he said.
Bando said the province would soon have a jail of its own and they needed to have more magistrates to clear out cases.
“All of us need to be agents of change, to bring peace and recognise our call as public servants and individuals in assisting the work of police to keep our society safe,” he said.
Hela police commander Michael Wely raised similar concerns.
He said a lot of police cases were pending and that was discouraging police officers from  carrying out their duties.