President Mnangagwa is set to appoint eight judges to fill
positions that have arisen at the High Court bench after the Judicial Service
Commission (JSC) submitted a list of 10 candidates who performed well in public
interviews held last month.
The bench is under-staffed, resulting in the passing of
judgments taking time. To worsen the situation, the court recently lost two
seasoned judges, Justices Nicholas Mathonsi and Charles Hungwe, who were
elevated to the Supreme Court.
JSC acting secretary Mr Walter Chikwana yesterday confirmed
that a list of qualifying candidates for the appointment has since been
forwarded to President Mnangagwa for his consideration.
“The JSC has submitted a list of qualifying candidates to
the President in terms of the law,” he said while holding back the finer
details on the matter.
More than 16 candidates took part in the public interviews
conducted early last month. The interviews are an important part of the
appointment process for judges laid down in Section 180 (4) of the
Constitution, which provides guidelines on the appointment of judges of
superior courts.
They come after the earlier stages in the process already
taken by the JSC — advertising the vacancies and inviting the President and
members of the public to put forward qualified candidates, and preliminary
vetting of the nomination documents.
After the interviews, the JSC is required to decide on a
list of qualified persons as nominees for the eight posts, and send the list to
the President.
Having received the JSC’s list of nominees, the President
must then, unless he considers that no one on the list is suitable for
appointment to the High Court bench, make the eight appointments from that
list.
If the President considers that none of the persons on the
list is suitable for the appointment, he must require the JSC to submit a
further list of qualified persons. Herald
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