Top judges ‘ignorant of new constitution’

Top court judges have not read new Constitution … Lovemore Madhuku

Madhuku, also leader of the opposition NCA party, said the judges continuously depend on lawyers to remind them of the provisions of the country’s new constitution.

The Constitutional Court is the highest court in the land. It was introduced by the new constitution which Zimbabwe adopted in March 2013.

Nine judges were appointed to the court by President Robert Mugabe soon after the adoption of the new charter in 2013.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, who chairs the Judicial Service Commission and leads the Supreme Court bench, is also the head of the Constitutional court.

Speaking at a panel discussion to mark World Human Rights Day in Harare last week, Madhuku, who strongly opposes the new constitution, said Mugabe’s handpicked judges did not understand the new charter.

“Our judges do not even understand the constitution that we have,” he said.

“I mean we have judges that are there in the Supreme Court who were (there simply) because they did not want to have someone else being called a constitutional court judge while they would remain in Supreme Court.”

Madhuku, also a practising lawyer who has approached the Constitutional Court several times lately, said lawyers were better informed about the new charter than the top court bench.

“They (judges) have not read it and the lawyers who appear in the Constitutional Court keep reminding the judges that there is a new constitution,” he said.

“So this is the problem and it will take us ages to get there”.