46 | Zimbabwe Rule of Law Journal
or is packed with people who advance the interests of a certain faction, then this will be a threat to
judicial independence. Madhuku therefore correctly notes that the extent to which the appointment
of judges is free from political manipulation is largely reliant on the independence of the JSC itself.44
In terms of composition, s 189 (1) states that the JSC is made up of the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief
Justice, Judge President of the High Court, one judge nominated by other judges, Attorney-General,
Chief Magistrate, Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission, three practicing legal practitioners, one
professor or senior lecturer of law, a public accountant and a person with human resources experience.
The Chief Justice presides over the meetings of the JSC.45 Section 189(3) states that some members
of the JSC will serve for only one non-renewable term of six years. Those that serve one term include
the judge nominated by other judges, legal practitioners, law professor or lecturer, public accountant
and human resources person.
An analysis of the composition of the JSC shows that there has been an attempt to promote diversity
in terms of representation of various interests. Further, the inclusion of the representatives of the
senior members from the judiciary and the independent legal profession goes a long way in ensuring
judicial independence, integrity of the judicial sector and impartiality of judges and magistrates.
Manyatera and Fombad, rightly note that such a composition might augur well for the assessment
of judicial candidates as most of the members are well placed to critically scrutinise the suitability or
otherwise of the candidates to the judicial office.46
Apart from these observations, however, there are several issues to examine as they may in practice
affect decisions of the JSC to effectively promote judicial independence. The first issue is that the
there are two opportunities for Presidential appointment of members of JSC. These include the
human resources person in terms of s 189(1) (k) and a possible appointee by the President from the
academic field in terms of s 189(1) (i). Section 189(1)(i) states that one professor or senior lecturer
44
L. A Madhuku (2002), Journal of African Law 238; see also L. Chiduza op cit note 26 at 379.
45
Section 189 (2)
46
Manyatera and Fombad op cit note 6 at 18
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