The High Court has a
total of 26 judges in Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare, the four divisions
of the court.
This is after six judges from the court were recently
elevated to the Supreme Court bench to replace five judges of that court who
were appointed to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land.
The immediate-past Judge President of the High Court
Justice George Chiweshe and Justices Alfas Chitakunye, Samuel Kudya, Felistus
Chatukuta, Joseph Musakwa and Hlekani Mwayera — were last month sworn in as
Supreme Court judges, a development which brought the superior court back to a
full team after the promotion of five judges to the Constitutional Court.
Appeals are normally heard by a bench of three Supreme Court judges.
The six new Supreme Court judges replaced Justices
Paddington Garwe, Rita Makarau, Anne-Mary Gowora, Ben Hlatshwayo and Bharat
Patel who were elevated to the Constitutional Court bench in May this year
following the split last year of the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court.
While after the most recent constitutional amendments, public
interviews are no longer required when judges are promoted from the High Court
to the Supreme Court, they are still required when lawyers, which can include
those already sitting as magistrates, are being shortlisted for appointment to
the High Court.
JSC secretary Mr Walter Chikwana said: “Nominations were
done at our various centres across the country’s 10 provinces,” he said.
“We will be able to
know how many candidates have been nominated after going through the nomination
papers from the provinces. Once that process is done we will proceed to compile
a list of the names nominated as we continue with the process leading to the
public interviews on a date to be advised.”
The recruitment drive for more judges opened last month
after the JSC invited members of the public to nominate eligible candidates to
fill nine vacancies at the High Court bench.
In terms of Section 179 of the Constitution, a person
qualified for appointment as a judge of the High Court must be at least
40-years-old, have been a a judge of a court with unlimited jurisdiction in
civil or criminal matters in a country in which the common law is Roman-Dutch
or English, and English is an officially recognised language or have been
qualified to practise as a legal practitioner in Zimbabwe or in a country in
which Roman-Dutch or English and English is an officially recognised language
for at least seven years and is still so qualified, and is a Zimbabwean
citizen.
After meeting those basic requirements, the prospective
judge then has to show they are a proper person to hold office as a judge of
the High Court, which is where their personal attributes, their standing in
society and the legal profession, their legal experience and background and
other factors not spelled out in the Constitution come into the reckoning.
Herald
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