The candidates are—
Hon Mr Justice Luke Malaba, Deputy Chief Justice
Hon Mr Justice Paddington Shadreck Garwe, Judge of the Supreme Court
Hon Mrs Justice Rita Tambudzai Makarau, Judge of the Supreme Court
Hon Mr Justice George Mutandwa Chiweshe, Judge-President of the High Court.
The proceedings will take place in public in the Jacaranda Room at the Rainbow Towers Hotel, starting at 9 am. The times for the individual interviews are not yet available.
All members of the public are welcome to attend.
The interviews are an important part of the appointment process for the position of Chief Justice, as laid down in section 180 of the Constitution and as explained in detail in Veritas’ Court Watch bulletin dated 9th November. That bulletin also contains brief biographies of all the candidates and is available on our website. This link will take you to the relevant page on the Veritas website.
The interviews will be conducted by the members of the JSC in accordance with the JSC’s recently published Guidelines on the Appointment of Judges [soft copy available via this link to the Veritas website]. The Guidelines also provide for written comments [but not anonymous ones] on the nominees to be submitted by any member of the public to the JSC offices in the Old Supreme Court Building, corner Kwame Nkrumah Ave and Third Street, Harare [next door to the public entrance to Parliament]. Telephone numbers are Harare 704118 or 706260
After the interviews the JSC will have to decide on a list of three nominees and submit the list to the President. This will involve eliminating one of the four candidates. [The Guidelines are silent on publishing the final list or identifying the eliminated candidate.] The President will then appoint one of these three nominees as Chief Justice, unless he considers that none of the three is suitable for the post. In that highly unlikely event, section 180(3) of the Constitution allows him to require the JSC to submit one further list of three qualified persons.
Correction of an Erroneous Newspaper Report and Headline
On 14th November a local newspaper, in its print and online editions, ran an article headlined Makarau tipped to succeed Chidyausiku. Our Court Watch bulletin dated 9th November [see above] was cited in the article below the headline and the “tip†was attributed to Veritas.  We have asked the newspaper editor to issue a correction, but pending this Veritas states for the record that there was no such “tip†in our bulletin. It would be contrary to our principles of fairness and impartiality to express any view on a matter of this nature.
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.
Post published in: Featured