Zimbabwe’s prisons are grappling with severe overcrowding, holding nearly 10,000 inmates beyond their intended capacity. This dire situation has prompted Prosecutor General Loice Matanda-Moyo to issue a significant directive, urging prosecutors to actively pursue bail, fines, and community service as alternatives to custodial sentences.
In an internal memo dated January 7, 2026, which has been seen by ZimLive, Matanda-Moyo reveals the alarming figures: the nation’s prison population stands at 27,683 inmates, far exceeding the official holding capacity of 17,800. This leaves the facilities overcrowded by a staggering 9,883 prisoners.
“This situation is undesirable,” Matanda-Moyo stated firmly, ordering all public prosecutors to consider the overcrowding crisis during bail proceedings and when making sentencing submissions. “Only in deserving cases should prosecutors advocate for custodial sentences.”
The memo, distributed to prosecutors across the country, exposes the sheer scale of congestion within the correctional facilities. It places particular emphasis on the high number of detainees who have not yet been convicted of any crime.
Of the total prison population, a concerning 5,970 are unconvicted accused persons. The Prosecutor General argues that this reality directly contradicts constitutional protections.
“Our law scoffs at pre-trial incarceration,” Matanda-Moyo emphasised. “An accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Generally, it is undesirable for an unconvicted person to be denied his or her liberty except in exceptional circumstances.”
She reminded prosecutors that detention before trial is not an automatic measure, stressing that the state bears the responsibility of justifying continued incarceration.
“In terms of the law, an accused is entitled to bail unless the court finds that it is in the interest of justice that accused be detained in custody pending trial,” she explained. “A prosecutor cannot simply without any justification submit for detention of an accused person in custody.”
The directive explicitly instructs prosecutors to urgently review bail conditions, particularly in cases where accused persons remain incarcerated solely because they cannot afford the monetary bail set.
“If it is clear and apparent that accused do not afford such sums, there must be alternative conditions to bail in lieu of monetary payments,” Matanda-Moyo directed.
Furthermore, she instructed that accused persons facing minor offences should not be kept in custody at all.
“All accused remanded in custody facing petty offences must be admitted to bail on appropriate conditions,” the memo reads.
To alleviate the pressure on the overcrowded prisons, prosecutors have also been instructed to utilise fast-track courts to expedite non-complex cases that are likely to result in non-custodial sentences. They must also ensure that no accused person is detained for more than six months without trial, except in serious cases or under exceptional circumstances.
The directive from the Prosecutor General comes against a backdrop of concerns about the capacity of the judiciary to handle the workload. Chief Justice Luke Malaba addressed these concerns at the official opening of the 2026 Legal Year at the Constitutional Court in Harare. He warned that Zimbabwe’s judiciary is operating with “untenable” staffing levels. He explained that a growing population and an expanding court network are being serviced by a limited number of judges and magistrates, even though official figures suggest that case backlogs have largely been kept under control.
Malaba stated that the decentralisation of courts across the country had not been matched by an increase in the deployment of judicial officers and support staff, placing a severe strain on those currently in office.
“The number of judges and magistrates in the country has barely increased despite the opening of new courts,” Malaba said. “It is not ideal that such a large population expects both its criminal and civil dispute resolutions to be shouldered by a paltry eighty (80) judges and two hundred and fifty (250) magistrates.”
Zimbabwe’s population has risen to over 16 million, and litigation has increased as citizens become more aware of their rights and increasingly turn to the courts to resolve disputes.
Malaba cautioned that the “misalignment of staffing levels and the workload significantly contributes to delays and may compromise both quantitative and qualitative service delivery.” He added that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) must expand its human resource base at the same pace as the growing court network.
“The number of judges and magistrates in post must be dramatically increased if the Judiciary is to continue performing its constitutional mandate,” he said.
However, Malaba was keen to stress that case backlogs are not, in most instances, a direct result of staff shortages. He said a review of court performance during 2025 showed “exceptional performances by judges across all the superior courts and by magistrates,” with backlogs largely kept in check despite increased caseloads.
“All the courts received increased numbers of both criminal and civil cases,” he said, noting that improving economic activity had led to more civil disputes and an increase in crimes involving dishonesty such as fraud.
Statistics presented in the address showed that the superior courts reduced their civil case backlog by 2,469 cases in 2025, closing the year with 10,045 cases from an opening figure of 12,514.
“By any standard, these statistics are impressive and reflective of judges together with support staff who applied themselves well,” Malaba said. “I would like to congratulate them on a job well done.”
The magistrates’ courts recorded mixed results. Criminal cases increased marginally by 386 to 7,701, a rise Malaba attributed partly to the festive season when more offences are reported. Civil matters in the magistrates’ courts, however, surged sharply, with the backlog rising by 5,311 cases to 6,174.
Malaba said investigations showed the spike was not driven by staffing shortages alone but by “poor supervision of performance by the responsible officials in the hierarchy of the magistracy and unnecessary postponement of cases,” particularly following a flood of summonses from local authorities in the final quarter of the year. He said corrective measures had since been put in place.
He also credited several interventions for improved case disposal, including a 2025 practice direction allowing registrars to clear dormant cases, special circuit courts in Midlands province that targeted long-pending murder trials, expanded research support for judges, and the establishment of anti-drug and substance abuse courts and revived fast-track courts.
Despite these gains, Malaba cautioned that chronic understaffing was pushing judicial officers to breaking point.
“Such shortages are making those in post operate under unbearable pressure,” he said. “It may ultimately affect not only the quality of work but also their health as well.”
However, not everyone agrees with Chief Justice Malaba’s assessment. Law professor Lovemore Madhuku has rejected Malaba’s claim that staff shortages are crippling Zimbabwe’s justice system. Instead, he argues that deep-seated procedural inefficiencies, not a lack of judges or magistrates, are the real cause of delays in the courts.
Madhuku said that while the judiciary has made measurable progress in delivering judgments, particularly through electronic platforms, the narrative that Zimbabwe suffers from an acute shortage of judicial officers is misplaced.
“For a population of about 16 million, the number of judges is actually quite significant,” Madhuku said. “I do not agree that we have too few judges. What we have not fundamentally changed are the court procedures, which are inherently slow.”
His remarks put him at odds with Malaba, who warned that an “untenable situation” had emerged due to shortages of judges, magistrates, and support staff, saying the judiciary’s constitutional mandate was under threat unless staffing levels were “dramatically increased”.
Speaking after the official opening of the 2026 legal year, Madhuku acknowledged improvements in the timeliness of judgments.
“In the past, you could wait for a year or even two years before a judgment was delivered. Although there are still a few instances like that, there is now greater realisation within the system that judgments must be delivered timeously,” he said.
However, he cautioned against assuming that technology or staffing alone could cure systemic delays, pointing to persistent problems with the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS).
“The IECMS is still problematic because many people face serious network challenges. More importantly, during virtual hearings, there are frequent interruptions. It is common to have two or three disconnections in a single session,” Madhuku said.
He said such disruptions often push litigants and lawyers to prefer physical hearings despite the convenience of digital platforms.
“Everyone gets frustrated. You end up asking parties where they are and how far they are from court. While the system is a good step and should be maintained, it still needs serious improvement,” he said.
Madhuku also stressed that physical court hearings remain critical to public confidence in the justice system.
“There is something important about the public seeing justice being done in a physical courtroom. That element still matters,” he said.
But his sharpest criticism was reserved for court procedures, which he said waste judicial time and slow down case resolution regardless of how many judges are appointed.
“In the High Court, for example, a lawyer may be allowed to speak for an hour, when what they are saying could be said in 15 minutes. Then the opposing lawyer speaks for another hour,” Madhuku said.
By contrast, he said, the Supreme Court’s strict time limits promote efficiency.
“When you go to the Supreme Court, they tell you that you have 15 minutes. If you need more time, you ask for it, and maybe you get another five minutes. That discipline forces efficiency,” he said.
Madhuku said unless court procedures are overhauled, adding more judges or rolling out technology will have limited impact.
“That is where the real problem lies. The delays are not mainly about staffing levels or technology, they are about inefficient procedures,” he concluded.
Malaba, addressing the same legal year opening, painted a starkly different picture, saying Zimbabwe’s entire justice system was being carried by just 80 judges and 250 magistrates, a figure he said was inadequate given rising litigation.
Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza echoed the concern, warning that judges were operating under “unbearable pressure” that could affect both the quality of justice and their health.
But Madhuku maintained that without procedural reform, the staffing debate risks missing the point.
“If we do not fix how cases are handled, we will continue to move slowly, no matter how many judges we appoint,” he said.
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