Controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo’s uncle Naison Chivayo and ‘notorious’ Magistrate Ngoni Nduna, known for arbitrarily detaining human rights defenders without bail, have been appointed judges of the High Court along with ten others by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) confirmed the appointments in a statement on Wednesday. Justice Garainashe Mawadze was also appointed as the first Deputy Judge President of the High Court of Zimbabwe.
The following is the list of judges appointed by Mnangagwa in terms of section 180 (1) of the Constitution:
Naison Chivayo, Regis Dembure, Mpokiseng Dube, Joel Mambara, Gibson Mandaza, Faith Mushure and Vivian Ndlovu.
Nduna has also been elevated to the judgeship position. The President also appointed Phillipa Philips and Siziba Sijabuliso.
Douglas Kaitano has been appointed as the new Judge of the Administrative Court.
“The Judicial Service Commission sent its recommendation of the successful candidates to the President after conducting public interviews that were attended by 39 prospective candidates last month.
“There will be a swearing-in ceremony of the Deputy Judge President and the new eleven (11) judges on Monday 17 June 2024 at 10 00 hrs at the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe, Mashonganyika Building in Harare,” JSC said.
Naison Chivayo is the uncle to Wicknell Chivayo, a shadowy businessman involved in numerous alleged corruption scandals through tender-preneurship.
During his spending spree, Chivayo in February this year bought his three uncles Joseph Chivayo, Herbert Chivayo and Naison Chivayo, and his father-in-law David Madzikanda the latest Ford Ranger Wiltrax 3.0d V6 vehicles.
Chivayo allegedly got a US$40 million tender to supply election materials for the 2023 harmonised general elections and is currently under-fire from Zanu-PF members after his audio leaked claiming that he has captured the President.
Nduna is known by human rights activists for his seemingly merciless behaviour towards them.
In February 2021, political activist Job Sikhala, then MDC Alliance vice-chairman applied to have Harare magistrate Nduna removed from the bench, alleging that he was unfit to hold the position and was bringing shame on the Judiciary.
Sikhala had been detained for more than 20 days, being denied bail by Nduna in the case he was accused of publishing and communicating falsehoods.
“You can only sue a judicial officer if he has made a judicial malafide that is not in good faith. It is very clear in my case after having studied the evidence that was led in court and also the ruling of the magistrate that the ruling was malafide.
“It was not based on logic, it was not based on law, it was based on his manufactured evidence,” Sikhala said.
Sikhala said his assertions were supported by ruling by the High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi on his bail appeal hearing, who accused Nduna of creating his own evidence and acting on it to deny him bail.
Nduna had also faced another setback when he was removed from the case of prominent investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.
His attempts to remove rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa from Chin’ono’s legal team were also quashed by the court.
