Tanzania: Kiswahili Use Gains Momentum in Courts

By Faustine Kapama

THE High Court, Musoma District Registry, has started issuing judgements in Kiswahili, a positive

response to the call by the government for the Judiciary of Tanzania to switch the country's legal system and legal materials from English to the national language.

Judge Zephrine Galeba is the one who recently broke such record after delivering in Kiswahili language a ruling in a labour dispute involving North Mara Gold Mine Limited and a former employee, Mr Gerald Nzumbi.

In his decision, the judge dismissed the application for revision presented in court by North Mara Company to oppose an Award given in favour of Mr Nzumbi by the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration (CMA).

North Mara Gold Mine Limited had moved the court to revise the decision of the CMA in such labour matter, awarding the ex-employee 74,510,509/99 after ruling that the termination of his employment services was unfair.

Judge Galeba took his precious time to explain in detail as to why he decided to draft the court decision in Kiswahili, saying doing so was not strange and was not for the first time.

He gave some examples to drive home his position. According to him, it is on record stating that it should be noted that for the court to issue a ruling in the national language is not a trivial matter normal or foreign or first time.

The judge gave some examples to drive home his points, saying the former Labour Court, called Industrial Court, was issuing its judgments in Kiswahili and all 960 Primary Courts in the country since their inception provide decisions in Kiswahili.

All Ward Tribunals which are more than 3,900 in Tanzania Mainland issue their awards respected and withy legally binding decisions in Kiswahili.

Similarly, he said, the submissions of lawyers or parties before all courts in the country from the primary courts to the Court of Appeal are largely presented in Kiswahili.

The judge pointed out that only recording of court proceedings and drafting of judgments in District Courts, Resident Magistrate's Courts, High Court and the Court of Appeal were being written in English in accordance with the law.

"In order to further strengthen the arm of the rule of law known as Access to Justice, it is necessary to use the national language in the maintenance of all court records and court judgements in that language, which is the main language of the majority of citizens," he said.

Of course, he said, such argument does not take away the rights of other people such as the British themselves or foreigners from abroad or even at the request of the parties themselves if they prefer English to be used in their case.

Judge Galeba recalled a few years ago, in order to ensure timely and unconditional access to justice, the Judiciary of Tanzania waived payments to citizens to pay for copies of judgments.

He was, however, quick to point out that even if a citizen given the copy free of charge was compelled to look for money to pay a lawyer or other academician, who knows foreign language to read and interpret to him to understand what the decision really means.

In simple terms, the judge clarified, despite the fact that such deducting of the costs to the citizens of paying in court to obtain a copy of the judgment, he still has another cost to pay before he understands what is written in that ruling given to him in court.

Section 4 (1) of the National Kiswahili Council Act, as amended, states that the functions of the Council shall be to encourage the use of the Kiswahili language in the conduct of official business and public life generally.

In other words, he said, in 1967 when the law was enacted, Parliament saw the need to establish a national body, the Kiswahili National Council, to encourage the use of Kiswahili in all official governmental and public activities.

"It is the argument of this court that justice is a formal governmental and public matter, but it is now 54 years since we were first encouraged to use Kiswahili in such activities but the law does not allow using Kiswahili in court," the judge said.

He said that it was the court's opinion the Parliament should find means to help the Judiciary to be more easily understood by people it serves by repealing laws that oblige it to keep records and write judgments in English when most citizens do not understand such language fluently.