THE Judiciary has adopted a code of conduct to regulate judges and other judicial officers to prevent corruption.

Officially opening the 2012 legal year in Harare yesterday, Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba said the code of ethics was adopted last month after years of debating its relevance.

Justice Malaba criticised the High Court in Harare for failing to clear cases within reasonable time.He urged the Harare court to emulate the Bulawayo bench which he said had an excellent clearance rate.

"Sadly, the disposition rate at the High Court sitting in Harare is disappointing. It is apparent from the figures that the number of cases representing the unfinished work is too high, attesting to the grave problem of delays in the delivery of justice.

"The impression one gets from the examination of the figures representing the disposition rate is that not much time was spent hearing and determining cases."

Failure to clear cases in Harare was blamed on the postponement of many cases without good cause and the allocation of few hours to the job.

Justice Malaba said judges should get training on modern techniques of mediation and dispute resolution to effectively deal with matters at pre-trial conference stage.

The addition of more judges on the High Court bench, according to the Deputy Chief Justice, would not solve the issue until all the available judges commit themselves to their work.

"Until we can show that no group of other men and women assembled could put any better effort to clear the backlog of the cases, it would be difficult to justify the appointment of additional judges," he said.

The code of conduct guides the operations of Supreme and High court judges as well as presidents of the Labour and Administrative courts.The basis of the code is found under Section 18 of the Judicial Service Act.

The Act provides that service regulations may prescribe judicial codes of ethics providing for the prohibition or limitation of gifts to judicial officers or their families for the purpose of influencing the execution of the duties of judicial officers among others.

It should also provide for the definition of any corrupt practices or act of improper behaviour on the part of judicial officers. It is a body of rules relative to the conduct of a judicial officer and intends to guide him or her in the maintenance of certain basic standards of behaviour.

Justice Malaba said the code of conduct will guide judicial officers on what is acceptable and unacceptable.

"After many years of debate on the matter, the judiciary in Zimbabwe finally adopted a code of ethics in terms of Section 18 of the Act (Judicial Service Act) on December 2, 2011," he said.

"The code of ethics will apply to ‘judicial officers'. The term ‘judicial officer' as defined includes judges of the Supreme Court, judges of the High Court, Presidents of the Labour Court and the Administrative Court."

Justice Malaba said the need for a code of conduct was supported by "numerous judicial scandals, which broke out in many jurisdictions".

"Numerous judicial scandals, which broke out in many jurisdictions, gave support to the realisation of the fact that an undisciplined and unregulated judiciary cannot maintain public confidence in the justice delivery system," he said.

"From about 1990, judiciaries world over began to accept the necessity of having written codes of ethics to guide and regulate judicial conduct."Justice Malaba emphasised the importance of judiciary independence.

The absence of judiciary independence, he said, puts at risk the impartiality of a judicial officer in hearing and determining court cases.

Justice Malaba said there was a link between the code of conduct and the need for judicial independence.

"It is vital that the (judicial) independence be vested in persons who will behave in an ethical manner in their judicial and personal lives," he said.

"The code of conduct is, therefore, intended to promote and not inhibit the independence of the judicial officers in the discharge of their judicial functions."

Since January last year when the Judicial Service Commission gained control of its own budget, a marked improvement in the funding of the courts was noted, Justice Malaba noted.

"Prioritisation of funding of court operations under the budget under the past year saw improved provision of stationery and office furniture to the courts," he said."Circuit magistrates' courts, which had closed due to financial constraints have reopened."