Divorce cases dominate new Masvingo High Court

The opening of Masvingo High Court has brought relief to couples in troubled marriages as divorce dominates the number of civil cases before the court.

The distance to Harare or Bulawayo and the cost involved has been a hindrance to couples who wanted to go their separate ways.

"Although we have not yet started to hear civil cases, we are overwhelmed by the number of enquiries on divorce matters and chances are that they will dominate the High Court when we start hearing civil matters.

"Nine civil cases were received by September 1, 2016 and six of those are divorce cases," said Masvingo High Court registrar Dorothy Mwanyisa.

Mwanyisa also said that there are applications for several cases that were filed with the Harare and Bulawayo High Courts to be settled in Masvingo where that is convenient to either party.

Hazvinei Pasvani, the Master of High Court said that over 66 estate cases have been dealt with as of last September and more than 10 cases have been transferred from Harare and Bulawayo upon request.

"Since we started 66 new cases to do with estates have been recorded at the new High Court and more than 10 have been transferred from Bulawayo and Harare High Courts after the parties involved made applications for their transfer.
"This clearly shows that the coming of the High Court to Masvingo is a big relief to the people of this region because they no longer have to travel long distances for the Master's services," said Pasvani.

Those who were married under Chapter 5:11 had to travel to Harare to register an estate but that is now being done in Masvingo at the new High Court.

She said among other functions the Master is there to provide services like certificate of authority to access money left by the deceased in the bank, administration of immovable properties or other assets left by the deceased.