PROMINENT women lawyers and activists are among the 51 candidates who applied to join the High Court bench with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) set to conduct interviews from October 24.
Source: 51 aspirants jostle for 8 High Court posts – NewsDay Zimbabwe October 1, 2016
by PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
The interviews for the High Court bench will be the second since Zimbabwe promulgated a new Constitution in 2013 that now requires judges to be interviewed in public.
Among the women vying for the eight vacancies at the High Court are Sylvia Chirawu, Sheila Nyagumbo-Mahere, Emelia Muchawa, Susan Muchaneta Mutangadura, Bertha Muzangaza and Gladys Pise.
Chirawu is the national co-ordinator of Women and Law in Southern Africa and teaches family law and estate succession at the University of Zimbabwe.
Nyagumbo-Mahere is a former director at Musasa Project — a women’s organisation that deals with domestic abuse.
President Robert Mugabe appointed Nyagumbo-Mahere a non-constituency Senator on November 29 2005.
Muchawa is currently a Labour Court judge and former director of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers’ Association.
The women candidates do not only have an activism background as some like Mutangadura come with corporate experience.
Mutangadura is the current director at the Institute of Directors.
Muzangaza is a corporate lawyer and has sat on the board of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
Pise is a former regional magistrate and has also worked as counsel to the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
From the male side of candidates, there are a number of lawyers and a former magistrate.
The senior lawyers include Benjamin Chikowero, a partner at Gutu Chikowero Legal Practitioners, Arthur Johnson Manase of Manase and Manase, Pisirai Kwenda of Kwenda and Associates and Maxwell Chiwanza.
Former magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi is also on the list of candidates. The new selection of judges to the bench is quite different to the pre-2013 situation where Mugabe appointed judges in consultation with the JSC.
COMMENTS
Clever lawyers (few and far between) make a lot of money. Stupid one’s aspire to become judges with sheltered employment.