High Court Judges' Interviews To Be Held Next Week

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) says public interviews of candidates nominated to fill nine vacant positions of judges of the High Court will be conducted next week.

In a statement, the JSC said the interviews would be held from 30 August to 1 September at a city hotel and will be streamed live. The JSC said:

As previously advised and in the interests of public health, the Judicial Service Commission discourages members of the public from physically attending at the venue of the interviews.

To ensure compliance with the requirement to hold the interviews in public the proceedings will be streamed live on Judicial Service Commission media platforms (Twitter and Facebook).

The Judicial Service Commission has engaged the national broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, to have the interview proceedings beamed live.

Thirty-five candidates, among them regional magistrates and lawyers, will be interviewed to fill the nine vacant positions of judges of the High Court bench.

In terms of the law, the JSC conducts public interviews for the prospective judges after the nominations and then sends a list of recommended interviewees to the President who may assent to the names or ask the JSC to submit a fresh set of names.

Under the Constitution, a person is qualified for appointment as a judge of the High Court if he or she is at least 40 years old.

The person should also have, for at least 10 years, been qualified to practice as a legal practitioner in Zimbabwe or any country with the same common law as in Zimbabwe, or in a country in which the common law is Roman-Dutch or English.

More: The Herald