JSC conducts interviews to recruit two judges

By Fidelis Munyoro

The Judicial Service Commission will today hold public interviews for the recruitment of two judges to the Supreme Court bench as the commission seeks to increase human capital to match the growing statistics of courts.

Public interviews have become a norm, as Zimbabwe has complied with the Constitution, to increase transparency which will enhance the good governance of the country.

Five judges of the High Court have been shortlisted for the interviews to be conducted at a city hotel starting this morning.

The five candidates contesting for the Supreme Court bench are: Justices Felicia Chatukuta, Samuel Kudya, Elfas Chitakunye, Charles Hungwe and Nicholas Mathonsi.

They are all senior judges of the High Court and all of them but Justice Chitakunye have participated in previous interviews in public. Justice Chatukuta is the only female candidate.

In an interview yesterday, JSC acting secretary Mr Walter Chikwana confirmed the interviews would go ahead as scheduled.

“We are ready for the interviews and all the processes leading to the occasion have been done,” he said.

“Five high court judges are going to be interviewed by the JSC for the two positions of the Supreme Court bench.”

The interviews are an important part of the appointment process for judges laid down in section 180(4) of the Constitution.

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.

Section 180 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides guidelines on the appointment of Judges.

After the interviews, the JSC will decide on a list of “qualified persons as nominees for” the two 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 Supreme Court, make the two appointments from that list.

If the President considers that no-one on the list is suitable, he must call on the JSC to produce a second list and must make the appointment from that second list, according to section 180(5) of the Constitution. The Chronicle