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Auxilia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter
THE Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has started conducting interviews to recruit 60 magistrates who are expected to start work on July 1.
The interviews are being held in Bulawayo and Harare.
In an interview yesterday, JSC Secretary Mr Walter Chikwanha said from 700 applicants received, only 200 had been shortlisted for the interviews.
“We received more than 700 applications and the interviews are being done. They started yesterday (Monday) and are ending today (Tuesday).
We have shortlisted about 200 applicants and we expect to take 60 magistrates and they are supposed to start work on the 1st of July,” he said.
Mr Chikwanha said the recruitment of the 60 magistrates would cover the shortfall in the magistrates’ pool.
“We would have covered all the outstanding vacancies of the establishment of magistrates in the country and those 60 will be deployed throughout the country to our courts after undergoing some training. The establishment is supposed to be 250 but we had a shortfall of 60 magistrates,” he said.
Mr Chikwanha said the recruitment exercise was biased towards regional and gender representation.
“And we are also mindful of regional representation in our recruitment, in other words we’re going to ensure that each region is represented in recruitment.
We’re going to make sure that there is gender representation in our recruitment. We’re also going to make sure that there is proper equitable regional representation in our recruitment. We’re mindful of those two factors and we are considering them very seriously,” he said.
Mr Chikwanha said interviews will be held in Bulawayo to cater for people from the Southern region and in Harare to cater for Mashonaland and Manicaland provinces.
“We are doing interviews in the Southern and Northern regions of the country because we didn’t want people to travel all the way from Beitbridge or Plumtree to Harare.
So we decided to divide the country into two regions. I have sent two teams to do interviews in the Southern region and the Northern region,” he said.
Government recently gave the JSC the green light to recruit 233 employees in a bid to oil the wheels of justice.
The unfreezing of the posts will see the organisation recruiting court interpreters, clerks of court, assistant registrars, judges’ clerks and drivers between July and November this year.
@AuxiliaK
Online Reporter