TWO more aspiring High Court judges yesterday dramatically dropped out of the race to join the bench, as it emerged they flunked in their written exams conducted by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) last week.
BY PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
Lawyers Graham Nish and Onias Takaindisa did not turn up for interviews despite having their names on the interview list released by the JSC.
The duo joins the quartet of Elizabeth Rutsate, Graciano Manyurureni, Passmore Mabukwa and Cassian Jakachira, who also withdrew after failing the pre-interview exam.
The 52 aspiring judges last week sat for a judgment writing exam and personal character interviews done by a consultancy ahead of public interviews that started on Monday and end on Friday.
However, some candidates, who failed the pre-interview test attended the public interviews, arguing their competency could not be judged solely on one written examination.
Two of the aspiring judges, who failed the writing test and still attended the public interviews were Leon Muringani and Austin Sibanda.
“My view is that I will be able to write judgments. I will train myself and also go through what other judges would have written. I will invest time and energy in writing judgments,” Muringani said.
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“My low mark in the test was because I did not have exposure to the authoring of judgments. I think it’s a hurdle that I can overcome.”
Sibanda also defended his decision to attend the public interviews.
“I am of the view that that was one aspect of the law. One has to look at a lot of other things like the experience of the individual either on the bench or in practice,” he said.
“There is no template for writing a judgment. In terms of structure, one would not want to have a template judgment, but have to be based on the facts and referring to the law.”
Sibanda has eight years’ experience as a magistrate mostly in Botswana. This was his second attempt after he failed interviews in 2014.
Others, who were interviewed yesterday, include prosecutor Neville Wamambo, Masvingo lawyer, Isaac Muzenda and Stephen Murambatsvina.
Muzenda was questioned about his political affiliation and he answered that he had since resigned from his position in Zanu PF.
