5 new magistrates sworn in

Source: 5 new magistrates sworn in | The Herald

The new magistrates who were sworn in yesterday

Tendai Rupapa

Senior Reporter

FIVE new magistrates were sworn in yesterday at the Harare Magistrates Court as part of an ongoing process to ease the workload on magistrates and improve the quality of judgments and sentences passed.

The five are Messrs Alfred Dzinembiri, Moses Musiiwa , Ms Rumbidzai Kabasa, Ms Fungai Dzimiri, and Ms Jesline Madaka.

Speaking after the ceremony, chief magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi emphasised the need for quality in the execution of duties.

“We now have the appropriate numbers in the courts countrywide. We will continue recruiting so that we reduce heavy workload on magistrates. That on its own would then in turn enable magistrates to improve the quality of their judgments, the quality of their sentences and the overall quality of the product that comes out of the magistrates courts,” Mr Mutevedzi said.

The chief magistrate said the recruitment of magistrates followed an intense induction process.

“What we are then doing is that, when we recruit magistrates there is a very intensive induction process that they undergo.

“They actually write examinations at the end of that induction and its quite some rigorous process to the extent that when the five magistrates that were sworn in today started this induction, they were 10 of them.

“The other two were sworn-in earlier than the others because they had performed better. The other two unfortunately fell by the wayside because they failed their examinations and we decided that they were not good enough to become magistrates at the moment. Maybe they will try next time with an improvement, they stand that opportunity to then come in,” he said.

He added that the other one was still going through the induction process.

“The numbers in the courtrooms have grown reasonably well to our satisfaction and we believe that with the support that we are getting from the secretariat and from treasury, we will continue recruiting more magistrates. We have a class of about 15 more that are coming in.

“They have just started their training and we hope by the end of their induction they would have done very well enough to enable us to swear them in,” he said.