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CHIEF Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku refused to be cowed by the lazy judges who on Tuesday accused him of being out of touch with modern trends in the justice delivery system. A total of 21 out of 24 Harare High Court judges wrote to Judge President Justice George Chiweshe demanding that Chief Justice Chidyausiku should correct the “wrong impression” and repair the damage inflicted on their reputation and dignity after he criticised them in public.
Officially opening the 2015 legal year last month, Chief Justice Chidyausiku criticised most High Court judges for under-performance which he blamed on laziness.
He said one of the judges wrote just two judgments the whole year compared to a staggering 72 that one of the top performing judges wrote during the same period.Responding to Chief Justice Chidyausiku’s speech, the 21 judges said they wanted him to come up with an objective, fair and just appraisal system for all judges in respect of their judicial, quasi-judicial and non- judicial functions. “With all due respect, the Honourable Chief Justice’s speech was highly misleading,” said the judges.
They said the speech contained inaccurate and damaging analyses, impressions and conclusions particularly with regards to the performance of the High Court in general and that of individual judges. The judges said they felt humiliated, dejected and despondent.
They said they had lost dignity in the eyes of the public.
“The morale is very low, especially given that the depressing issue of unfulfilled conditions of services was practically a footnote in the Chief Justice’s speech”, said the judges.
Chief Justice Chidyausiku has, however, stuck to his guns and has instead threatened to expel underperforming judges if they do not improve their work rate. The country’s top judge who was responding to allegations by the 21 judges, who wrote to Judge President Justice Chiweshe, said all judges who underperformed in the 2014 legal year would be summoned one by one to explain their failure to deliver.
He said there will be no end to the fight between him and the underperforming judges unless they improve.
Chief Justice Chidyausiku said in future he would report the underperforming judges to the Judicial Service Commission for disciplinary action to be taken.
The measures that Chief Justice Chidyausiku intends to take against lazy judges are what the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) has demanded.
Soon after his speech criticising lazy judges, the LSZ called on Chief Justice Chidyausiku to go beyond merely denouncing lazy judges.
It is unfortunate that instead of taking measures to ensure that each and every judge performs to expected standards, the judges decided to gang up against Chief Justice Chidyausiku to protect lazy judges.
Do the 21 judges condone laziness? We fully support the decision to summon all the underperforming judges so that they explain their failure.
It is said justice delayed is justice denied so the underperforming judges are denying people justice. Chief Justice Chidyausiku should not be intimidated by lazy judges who, instead of explaining their failure to perform, now want to raise irrelevant issues of the so called unfulfilled conditions of service.
The top performing judges are working under the same conditions therefore poor conditions of service cannot be an excuse for underperformance. We want to once again implore underperforming judges to improve their work rate or risk being kicked out of the system.
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo