President Mnangagwa elects judges to be sworn in this morning

The President of Zimbabwe has carefully handpicked 5 judges to be sworn in to the Constitutional Court. It doesn’t come as a surprise that critics are already showing their dissatisfaction over the way in which this was done.

The Judges to be sworn in were interviewed in 2020 following the Judicial Service Commission’s (JSC) public notice on these interviews. However, there was no further development of the issue since then. It would seem that the President waited until the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill (no 2) had sailed through.

Amendment Bill (no 2) allows the President to elect Judges without them going through any voting process. View the rest of the terms of the bill in this article. Critics have stated that the bill gives the President more power than a President in a so called Democratic nation should have.

This amendment bill is the same one that led to the recent back and forth in the Chief Justice Malaba Saga. You can read about it here.

The 5 Judges that will be sworn in today at 10 am by the Acting Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza at the Constitutional Court are:

1. Justice Rita Makarau
2. Justice Paddington Garwe
3.  Justice Bharat Patel
4. Justice Ben Hlatshwayo
5.  Justice Anne-Marie Gorowa

What are your thoughts?

Let us know in the comment section below.