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Fidelis Munyoro, Harare Bureau
THE Judicial Service Commission has re-opened the nomination process to choose a suitable candidate to fill the position of the Prosecutor-General following the reversal of the appointment of Advocate Ray Goba as substantive PG.

President Mugabe, through Government Gazette Extraordinary Notice Number 642 of 2017, last week repealed an earlier notice announcing the appointment of Adv Goba.

In a statement yesterday, the JSC said the decision to re-open the nomination process comes after President Mugabe found that none of the candidates on the list was suitable for appointment to the esteemed office.

“Following interviews in public on 21 August 2017 of prospective candidates for the position of the Prosecutor-General and the subsequent submission to the President of a list of three persons in terms of section 180 (4)(c) of the Constitution, the President has informed the Judicial Service Commission that he has considered the list and has found none of the persons on the list suitable for appointment to the office,” read the statement.

The JSC said the President, in terms of section 180(5) of the Constitution, required the JSC to submit a further list of three qualified persons.

To enable it to compile the further list, the JSC said it was necessary to commence the interviews in terms of the law.

“Members of the public are accordingly hereby invited to nominate suitable persons to fill the position.”

The JSC also said members of the public intending to nominate candidates can obtain nomination forms from the JSC’s offices at Old Supreme Court Building, Corner Kwame Nkurume Avenue/Third Street or at the office of any provincial magistrates in charge of a province or JSC website www.jsc.org.zw.

According to the Extraordinary Government Gazette published last week, General Notice 642 of 2017 repealed General Notice 493 of 2017, which announced the appointment of Adv Goba to the esteemed office on September 13 this year.

“It is hereby notified that the captioned General Notice (493 of 2017) that was published in the Gazette Extraordinary on the 13th September, 2017, is repealed,” said the notice.

Adv Goba had, however, not taken up office as he was not yet sworn-in. According to Section 259 (6) of the Constitution, “before taking up office, the Prosecutor-General must take, before the President or a person authorised by the President, the oath of office in the form set out in the Third Schedule”.

When asked for comment last week, Secretary for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mrs Virginia Mabiza said the President has the discretion, at law, to order the JSC to submit another list of candidates for appointment.

Government is trying to fill the post of Prosecutor General after the former PG, Mr Johannes Tomana — who became the first occupant of a separate office of criminal prosecutions created by the new Constitution in 2013 — was fired on June 9 this year for misconduct and incompetence.