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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
PROSECUTORS seconded to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) from the police, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) and army will continue to render their services despite the recent recruitment of qualified personnel.
There were reports from sources within the NPA that the massive recruitment of qualified personnel would see police and army prosecutors being sent back to their organisations.
The acting Prosecutor General, Mr Kumbirai Hodzi, in an interview, said the seconded prosecutors were an essential component of the NPA.
“We are not going to phase out prosecutors from the police, prisons and army because during the critical shortage of qualified prosecutors, we largely relied on these people, especially in remote areas of the country. They have been very helpful at a time when we were suffering from manpower shortages,” he said.
Mr Hodzi said due to an increase in the number of courts across the country, the shortage of prosecutors will continue to persist.
“I am sure you are aware that there is also an expansion in the number of courts with the High and Regional Courts being decentralised so the shortage of prosecutors will always be there and it is not something that we can be able to eliminate over night hence the seconded prosecutors will remain an essential component in the administration of justice,” he said.
“They will actually be an addition to the recently recruited prosecutors, and again it is also important to note that we have a programme for continuation of legal education and some of these seconded prosecutors have also taken bold steps to acquire law degrees and hence they will continue with their prosecutorial duties.”
Mr Hodzi said the NPA’s thrust is to deliver quality criminal justice to the citizenry.
“We want to make sure that our people have access to quality criminal justice in line with our vision,” he said.
The NPA recently recruited a total of 102 prosecutors after Treasury gave them the green light to employ at least 120 prosecutors to address the critical shortage of qualified staff.
The Authority recently flighted a vacancy notice in the media inviting applications to fill positions of junior public prosecutors, senior public prosecutors, principal public prosecutors and chief public prosecutors.
The NPA has been operating with 315 prosecutors some of them non-degreed.
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