Concourt poll petition: Meet the Bench
Chief Justice Luke Malaba
JUSTICE Luke Malaba is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe.
He was appointed in 2017 and before his appointment to the position, he was the Acting Chief Justice following the retirement of the late Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku in February 2017.
Justice Malaba was the first Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court under Constitutional Amendment Act Number 18 in 2008. Justice Malaba attained his law degrees in 1974 from the University of Warwick and in 1982 from the University of Zimbabwe. He spent three years as a public prosecutor in Bulawayo from 1981 to 1984.
He then began his career as a magistrate in 1984 in Masvingo and rose steadily through the ranks of the magistracy and attained the rank of regional magistrate in 1990. He was appointed as a judge of the High Court in 1994 and served as a judge of the Bulawayo High Court from 1994 to 2001 before his elevation to the Supreme Court in August 2001 and became the country’s first Deputy Chief Justice in 2008.
Justice Malaba has also held an appointment as a judge of the COMESA Court of Justice.
Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza
She is a justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe and was appointed as Deputy Chief Justice this year, succeeding Justice Luke Malaba who took the post of Chief Justice. Justice Gwaunza became a legal practitioner of the High Court in 1987, having served on the boards of many women’s non-governmental organisations, including Musasa Project and the Women’s Leadership and Governance Institute and became the second woman to sit on the Supreme Court Bench after Justice Vernanda Ziyambi.
Justice Paddington Garwe
Justice Garwe was appointed justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe in 2006 before being promoted to become a justice of the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe in 2013. He has also been the chairperson of the Zimbabwe National Committee on Community Service from 1993 to date and chairperson of the Pre-Trial Diversion Programme for Young Offenders from 2010 to date.
Justice Garwe was registered as a legal practitioner on May 10, 1979, and his career in the Judiciary started in the colonial era in 1978. He later on worked as a clerk of court and prosecutor before being appointed magistrate in February 1980.
From there, Justice Garwe rose through the ranks of the judicial system and was appointed to the position of Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in 1991 after which he was appointed as a judge of the High Court in 1993 at age 35. He was made Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe in 2001.
Justice Chinembiri Bhunu
Justice Bhunu is a judge of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe. He was appointed Senior President of the Labour Court in 2001 before joining the High Court in 2003. He then moved to the Supreme Court and eventually Constitutional Court in 2015.
Justice Rita Makarau
Justice Rita Makarau was appointed to the position of Judge of the Supreme Court in 2010. She is the former secretary of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) as well as former chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. She is the first female Judge President of Zimbabwe.
In 1982, Justice Makarau graduated from the University of Zimbabwe with a Bachelor of Laws Degree before graduating with an Honours Degree in 1983.
Justice Makarau held several positions in her career. She worked as a public prosecutor at the Harare Magistrates’ Court before going into private practice.
During her private practice years, Justice Makarau worked for Kantor and Immerman Legal Practitioners. From 1988, she was the secretary of legal affairs at the Parastatal Commission and served in the Constitutional Commission from 1998 to 2000 before she was appointed High Court Judge in December 2000.
Justice Bharatkumar Patel
Justice Patel was appointed to the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe as Judge of Appeal in 2013.
He was simultaneously appointed to the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe Bench by virtue of certain transitional provisions in the new Constitution of Zimbabwe which came into operation in May 2013.
He began his working career in 1978 in the London para-legal sector, before returning home in 1982. Upon his return, he joined Government service as legal counsel, performing advisory and representative duties in matters of public law and international law.
From 1993, Justice Patel was appointed head of the Division of Legal Advice in the Attorney-General’s Office of Zimbabwe until he was appointed to the position of Deputy Attorney General of Zimbabwe in August 2000. He assumed the post of Acting Attorney-General in April 2003 after the resignation of Mr Andrew Chigovera.
Justice Patel was appointed to the High Court Bench in 2004 and assumed judicial duties in January 2005. From December 2007 to December 2008, he was temporarily re-appointed to the post of Acting Attorney-General, following the suspension and removal from office of the previous incumbent, Mr Sobuza Gula-Ndebele.
Justice Ben Hlatshwayo
Justice Hlatswayo was appointed as a High Court judge in 2000. He was later promoted to the Supreme Court in 2013.
In the same year, Justice Hlatshwayo was also appointed as a judge of the Constitutional Court
Justice Tendai Uchena
Justice Uchena is a judge of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, who was promoted to the Supreme Court and to the Constitutional Court in 2016. In 2003 and 1998, he was appointed as a High Court judge and president of the Administrative Court, respectively. In 2018, Justice Uchena was appointed as head of the Commission of Inquiry of Sale of State Land in February, which was created to look into the sale of State land in and around urban areas since 2005.
The commission was given 12 months from the day of the appointment to conclude its task.
Justice Lavendar Makoni
Justice Makoni is one of the two High Court judges recently appointed to the Supreme Court Bench.
Justice Makoni was appointed High Court Judge in 2002 and is the head of the Civil Division at the High Court. She has 14 years experience on the High Court bench as the head of the Civil Division.