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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter

NAMIBIAN permanent secretary for the Judiciary Mrs Rolanda Lucretia Van Wyk has hailed Zimbabwe for effectively running an independent judicial system.Mrs Van Wyk arrived in Zimbabwe on Sunday while accompanied by her two deputies, director of administration, public relations officer and a personal assistant on a benchmarking tour to learn the best practices from JSC.

In an interview during her two-day visit to benchmark on the judicial administration in Zimbabwe this week, Mrs Van Wyk said the JSC model was one of the best in Africa and countries on the continent should take a cue from the successful operation.

“We came here to see the model used by the Judicial Service Commission. We wanted to see what systems they put in place after they became independent.

“I am impressed with the strides made by JSC in ensuring the independence of the judiciary in Zimbabwe.

“It is indeed an independent arm and as a continent, we should all be proud of Zimbabwe.

“The JSC model is one that other African countries should follow to achieve judicial independence,” she said.

Mrs Van Wyk said her team learnt a lot from Zimbabwe and they will implement some of the systems in Namibia.

“We learnt a lot from the JSC and time was actually too short for us. Now that we have picked up some tips on how to improve on our judiciary, we will have to go back and discuss with the others before implementing some of the systems we saw here.

“Definitely we will implement most of the systems in Namibia,” she said.

JSC secretary Justice Rita Makarau said the commission also picked up some important ideas from interacting with the Namibian team.

“We had a fruitful interaction with the Namibian delegation. Although they came to check on how we are managing, we also learnt a great deal from the interactions.

“I also realised that Zimbabwe and Namibia have a lot in common,” she said.

The delegation made courtesy calls on Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba and Judge President George Chiweshe before touring the superior courts in Harare and convening a series of meetings with the JSC secretariat.

They flew back to Namibia yesterday morning.

The judiciary in Namibia had been operating under the Ministry of Justice until December last year when it was weaned.

The now independent arm is in the process of setting up structures and gathering ideas on how to improve its operations to ensure total independence.

JSC became independent on June 10, 2010.

Prior to that, the judiciary was operating under the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.