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VP Mnangagwa

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter—
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called for recruitment of more magistrates to expeditiously deal with commercial disputes in line with the Government’s “Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe” reform agenda. Speaking at the official opening of a new courthouse in Mvuma this week, VP Mnangagwa, who oversees the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said the shortage of magistrates in the country was seriously hampering the noble programme, hence the need to recruit new judicial officers.

Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe is a national programme that aims to address challenges faced by investors and local entrepreneurs seeking to open and operate businesses in compliance with the relevant regulations of the country.

“The country is committed to the Ease of Doing Business reform agenda, which among other issues, requires the expeditious resolution of all commercial disputes, particularly at the magistrates’ court level.

“To achieve that, Cabinet has sanctioned the amendment of various pieces of legislation like the Magistrates’ Court Act, which will designate every Magistrate’s Court as a Commercial Court and Small Claims Court, respectively.

“This, however, cannot be achieved with the shortage of judicial officers obtaining in the country at the moment. It is necessary, therefore, that the number of magistrates be increased significantly to complement the efforts being made to improve the Ease of Doing Business,” said VP Mnangagwa.

The newly constructed Mvuma Magistrates’ Court, together with 21 others built under the Judicial Service Commission’s partnership with the Royal Danish Embassy, has facilities for two magistrates, but most of them were operating with a single magistrate.

VP Mnangagwa confirmed this. “For example, this new courthouse has two courtrooms but the station only has one magistrate.” Speaking on the sidelines of the official opening of the Mvuma court, Chief Magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe said his office was shortstaffed and the few available magistrates were being overworked.

“In a normal set-up, we must have 250 magistrates in the country, but at the moment we are less than 200. “Twenty-one of our magistrates were seconded to the JSC where they are doing other duties in an acting capacity, and they were never replaced.

“We have 41 other vacancies, leaving the total vacancies on the bench at 62,” he said. Considering the Ease of Doing Business in Zimbabwe programme, Mr Guvamombe said there was need to recruit more magistrates in addition to the 62 required to fill the vacant posts.

The Chief Magistrate said instead of working 60 hours per month, the magistrates were working in excess of 100 hours. This, he said, was unhealthy and had an effect of compromising on the quality of judgments delivered by the magistrates.

Mr Guvamombe said the recruitment freeze was seriously affecting the operations of the courts. “Since 2010, we have not been recruiting magistrates, except for a few and insignificant replacements.

“What we only experienced during the time, was the removal of 21 magistrates to perform other duties in the JSC secretariat in acting capacities, without any replacements,” he said.

Magistrates’ courts in Kadoma, Plumtree, Beitbridge and Chipinge were recently designated as regional courts but the Chief Magistrate’s office is failing to deploy regional magistrates there due to staff shortages.