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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Government has restored monthly skills retention allowances of between US$150 and US$400 for magistrates that were scrapped last year.
Magistrates countrywide received their retention allowances this month, according to well-placed sources.
The restoration of the allowances comes a month after Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa indicated Government’s commitment to improving the conditions of service for judicial officers in January this year.
Minister Mnangagwa told The Herald during the official opening of the 2014 legal year that he would make a proposal to Treasury to have the incentives restored.
Some magistrates have since confirmed that the incentives were restored this month.
“Minister Mnangagwa promised to do something and here we got the incentives back,” said a magistrate who declined to be named. “The minister delivered on his promise.”
Another magistrate in Gweru also commended Minister Mnangagwa for living up to his promise.
“It is encouraging to have a minister who listens to your plight and act promptly,” said the magistrate.
Chief magistrate Mr Mishrod Guvamombe could not be reached for comment.
But law officers and prosecutors who fall under the Prosecutor-General’s Office are bitter after they were sidelined.
“We heard that magistrates’ allowances were restored while ours were not,” said one of the prosecutors.
A law officer in the PG’s Office said: “The situation in the prosecution department is volatile, people are agitated.”
Lawyers employed by Government started getting the monthly allowances in 2011, with the allowance largely credited for ending strikes by magistrates and prosecutors around the time.
In his keynote address at the 2014 legal year opening, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku bemoaned the announcement by the Civil Service Commission that it had stopped paying magistrates’ retention allowances until further notice.
Online Reporter