Erica Ndewere

Erica Ndewere
Justice; Erica Ndewere
	Image via Judicial Services Commission
Judge
Appointed by	President Robert Mugabe
Personal details
Born	Erica Ndewere
Nationality	Zimbabwean
Residence	Zimbabwe
Occupation	Judge at the High Court of Zimbabwe
Profession	Law
Known for	Being suspended for granting Job Sikhala bail in September 2020.

Erica Ndewere is a Zimbabwean lawyer and a former judge of the High Court of Zimbabwe. She was appointed by President Robert Mugabe in 2013. Justice Erica Ndewere was sworn in on the 14th of July 2014, by the late former President Robert Mugabe. ^[1] Before her appointment as a High Court judge, Justice Erica Ndewere was the president of the Labour Court.

Notable Cases

Granting Opposition leader bail

In September 2020, Justice Ndewere granted MDC Alliance vice-chairperson Job Sikhala bail in his High Court case of inciting public violence. The judgement was generally viewed by the opposition as contrary to the norm of opposition leaders and activists being denied bail.

Constitutional lawyer and academic, Alex Magaisa commented:

We’ve have been very hard on the judiciary in recent months. But as I wrote in a recent #BSR individual judges are under pressure from the system. Don’t underestimate the courage of the judge who gave Job Sikhala bail on Tuesday. I wouldn’t be surprised if she suffers for it. When you do things against the system’s wishes, the system finds something to hit you with. Sooner or later you will hear they are investigating Justice Erica Ndewere for this and that. I do not have the power to see the future; I merely interpret the future from experience.^[2]

On 13 October 2020, The Herald reported that Justice Ndewere had been brought before a tribunal after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) recommended to President Emmerson Mnangagwa to set one up to look into her suitability to hold office.^[3] The allegations against her were not disclosed.

Suspended after appointment of tribunal

Justice Erica Ndewere of Harare High Court suspended after President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed a tribunal to investigate allegations of misconduct against her on the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on 5 November 2020. She accused Chief Justice Malaba of pursuing her after she defied his unlawful orders. Ndewere was accused of failure to clear her workload in reasonable time and failure to properly study the file on a thief’s conviction and sentence when she set aside a jail term.

She denied allegations that she had 34 outstanding matters when she only had three and urged her accuser to provide the outstanding cases.

Dismissal

On 17 June 2021, Erica Ndewere was fired by Emmerson Mnangagwa after a tribunal found her guilty of misconduct. The full statement issued by the office of the president and cabinet reads:

The Tribunal established in terms of section 187 (3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, to inquire into the question of removal from office of Honourable Justice Erica Ndewere has completed its investigations.
The Tribunal has presented its findings to His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe in terms of section 187 (7) of the Constitution. The tribunal has recommended that Honourable Justice Ndewere be removed from office for gross incompetence.
His Excellency, the President has accordingly, in terms of section 187 (8) of the Constitution, removed Honourable Justice Erica Ndewere from office with immediate effect.

^[4]