President Mnangagwa appoints 5 new Con Court judges

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed five new Constitutional Court judges.

The five appointed are Paddington Garwe, Rita Makarau, Anne-Marie Gowora, Bharat Patel and Ben Hlatshwayo.

The judges will be sworn-in tomorrow at 10am by the Acting Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza at the Constitutional Court.

This follows the Judicial Service Commission (JSC)’s public notice in 2020 that it would conduct public interviews of the 12 candidates who had been nominated to fill the five vacancies on the Constitutional Court that had existed since 22nd May 2020.

The interviews took place last year on Monday 7 September to Wednesday 9 September at Meikles Hotel in Harare.

However, NewsHawks also reports that, President Mnangagwa did not appoint judges emerging from the interviewing process as widely expected, but instead waited until there were constitutional amendments that now allow him to appoint new judges without interviews, which is arbitrarily.

Commenting on the recommended judges sometime in 2020, former Minister of Higher Education Jonathan Moyo said: “Missing is Justice Happias Zhou, who came a big third in the interviews!”

Moyo posted; The five judges recommended by @JSCZim for ConCourt appointment are:

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

Missing is Justice Happias Zhou, who came a big third in the interviews!

-Zwnews