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Prosecutors ordered to upgrade qualifications

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GOVERNMENT has urged the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to expedite efforts to ensure that all prosecutors practising without the minimum qualification of a first degree immediately upgrade.

GOVERNMENT has urged the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to expedite efforts to ensure that all prosecutors practising without the minimum qualification of a first degree immediately upgrade.

By Tinotenda Munyukwi

The requirement is in line with section 9 of the NPA Act, which states that only degreed personnel, who qualify to appear before any courts of law, be recruited as prosecutors by the authority.

Speaking at the handover of a library and library equipment to the NPA by the British embassy, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi reiterated the government’s commitment to strengthening the justice delivery system, underlining the need to have degreed prosecutors.

“We have, among our midst in the NPA, some law officers, who are not degreed and I am urging the Prosecutor-General [Ray Goba] and his staff to ensure that all our officers upgrade. The NPA Act dictates that everyone, who has to prosecute in our courts, must at least have a first degree. So we need to ensure that we adhere to the standards that we prescribed we want to have in our laws,” he said.

“The NPA is a creature of the new 2013 Constitution, which separated it from the Attorney-General’s Office and the prosecutors used to enjoy the services of the library there, but we believe that progressively, as we go forward, the NPA will now have their own library and books so that they can do their work.”

Deputy Prosecutor-General Florence Ziyambi said efforts being by developmental partners towards upgrading the NPA were important in making it independent and more effective in carrying out its mandate.

“Since 2013, when the NPA became a standalone institution, we had no library of our own. I consider this occasion momentous, as it marks an important stage towards equipping our office with the requisite tools of trade,” she said.