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Auxilia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter 

COLONIAL injustice, brutality and lack of a fair justice system are among the factors that saw the black majority rising up against the Rhodesian colonialists to free themselves from oppression.

In the colonial era, the black majority was subjected to all sorts of inhuman treatment, oppressive laws and brutality at the hands of the oppressors as the justice system favoured the colonial settlers.

However, since attainment of Independence, the country’s justice system has evolved from being that of the elite to being at the doorsteps of the majority with equal representation.

In an interview, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi said the country’s judicial system has achieved a lot of positives since 1980 among them justice accessibility, new Constitution and enactment of laws that protect the majority and vulnerable groups.

“Before Independence access to justice was limited to a few. If you noticed we have improved, the accessibility of our courts, we have opened up new courts in several places. We now have regional courts in some provinces, they could be two or three regional courts in each province and fairly recently we had regional courts in Kadoma, Chegutu being opened up,” he said.

He said courts were also being opened up in remote areas to ensure that justice is accessible to every Zimbabwean and  there were now four High Court Stations operating in the country compared to two at Independence.

He said: “We have opened up courts in rural areas like Guruve. Recently we separated Bulawayo from Matabeleland North province. We are improving accessibility. If you noticed before Independence the High Court was only located in Bulawayo and Harare but now we are going to provinces. We now have a High Court in Mutare and Masvingo, we intend to have in Midlands, Mashonaland West and Matabeleland North as we are moving into those areas.” 

He said there are new courts being constructed in Gwanda and Chinhoyi and added that the thrust of his Ministry would be to have a High Court station in every province.

Minister Ziyambi said as of now they are conducting High Court circuits in the provinces that do not have permanent stations.

“We are also thankful to the  Danish International Development Agency (Danida).  They have assisted over time in terms of agenda to ensure that access to justice is realised. They also assisted in building our courts,” he said.

He said he was proud of the strides made in the independent Zimbabwe in terms of legislation and access to justice which has enabled independence of some arms of Government.

“I think in the area of justice since independence we have made several strides and we are proud of the record, taking it into consideration where we are coming from and where we are going.  

“We have also taken several strides particularly with the coming in of the New Constitution, we now have the Judicial Service Commission that is independent, not under the Ministry of Justice even though for purposes of policy it is under the Ministry of Justice but it is now an independent commission.  We have the office of the Prosecutor General, the National Prosecuting Authority which is another independent entity separate from the Attorney General’s s office. The AG now does the function of being State counsel and advisor of Government only,” he said.

He said the new Constitution also saw the birth of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission which was to born out of a realisation that we need to deal with our past, truth and reconciliation of Zimbabweans in order to have closure of the past incidents.

He said in terms of access to justice, his Ministry now has the Directorate of Legal Aid to give advice to those who cannot afford a lawyer and it was now available in provinces but would soon be cascaded to districts to ensure that access to justice is realised as the country moved to Agenda 2030.

Minister Ziyambi said one of the major milestones that came after Independence was the passing the Legal Age of Majority Act which ensures that that women will also be recognised as having the legal status which was only available to men before Independence.

Turning to the rights of women and children who are mostly described as vulnerable groups, he said they were among the top beneficiaries of an Independent Zimbabwe as more laws  had been passed to protect them.                                                                                                                                           

“After the Legal Age of Majority Act we also have the Domestic Violence Act, laws to deal with maintenance, inheritance laws that have been changed to ensure that we move with trends that are happening in the country,” said Minister Ziyambi.

“In terms of realisation of rights of other groups, women and children we have done a lot. We also have the Children’s Act that we are looking at to ensure that we align it  to the Constitution but be that as it may as it is now it also guarantees the best interest of the child . So we have done that all that over the years to ensure that rights of disadvantaged groups are realised,” he said.

Turning to the composition of judges on various court benches which was predominantly white, Minister Ziyambi said they had done a lot and mostly he was proud of the women that had risen to take up posts as  judges.

“I think we are one of the few countries that can be proud of our record in terms of judges of the Supreme Court and High Court. If you look at the ratio of our judges, it’s almost 50-50 and I’m particularly proud that my namesake (retired) Justice Vernanda  Ziyambi was one of the first female judges to sit on the Supreme Court bench and if you look at the composition now, I think in terms of judges where we have complied with the Constitution, it’s close to the number that is required in terms of the composition of judges,” he said.

Minister Ziyambi among the gains of Independence was the rise of women in the judiciary given that the current Deputy Chief Justice, Elizabeth Gwaunza, was a female.

“At 1980 we didn’t have any, now we have a Deputy Chief Justice, a female and we hope in the near future our Chief Justice would be a female and if you look at the magistrates recently recruited, the majority of them are female and we think in that area we have done tremendously very well,” said Minister Ziyambi.

— @AuxiliaK