Vice President and Minister of Justice Emmerson Mnangagwa has tried to justify the constitutional amendment to grant the president unlimited power in the selection of senior judges by claiming that United States president Donald Trump also chose his own Chief Justice. However, this is not true, as the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court is John Roberts who was nominated by President George W Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate in 2005. The move to amend the constitution has been criticized with some quarters describing it as a mutilation of the Constitution.
Speaking in Chiredzi on Thursday, Mnangagwa said:
We cannot have a situation where teachers sit down and say amongst ourselves let us choose the headmaster
…On top of having the right qualifications, integrity and probity, the Chief Justice must be appointed by the President, who is also the Head of State. Even (US President Mr Donald) Trump chose his own Chief Justice. That is the practice the world over, so we are saying the President must choose and that is what we are working on.
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