The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
MAGISTRATES in rural districts will soon start using assessors when handling matters from traditional courts to curb continued conflict of interest between the two courts as well as avoiding undermining the authority of the traditional leaders, deputy chief magistrate Mr Gibson Mandaza has said. 
Mr Mandaza said this while responding to concerns by chiefs in that most of their cases that would have been presided over and judgments passed based on African Tradition cultural norms and values in rural communities were being reversed by magistrates using the Roman-Dutch law.
He assured the chiefs that the ministry will advise magistrates to consult advisors who are privy to the cultural norms and values of specific cultures and tribes before overriding chiefs’ sentences.
“We will have to consult magistrates so that before they overrule chiefs’ sentences on certain practices, they have to consult an advisor who is well versed in our different cultural aspects so that they know these things,” he said during a chiefs meeting in Gweru on Friday.
Chiefs had earlier raised concerns that the perception that is being shaped by the magistrates’ courts was that the traditional leaders’ rulings were not legally binding as 80 percent of the judgments they passed would be reversed. Zimbabwe Chiefs Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira said they wanted curriculums at law schools to be reviewed so that they incorporate issues to do with culture, so that magistrates can have an appreciation of different cultures and religions in the country.
“The concerns raised by the chiefs were that the magistrates do not have an appreciation of different cultures that we have in the country. We have so many tribes in the country and the way the Ndau people do their things is not the same way that the Ndebele people or the Karangas and Tongas handle their issues. The chiefs suggested that the law schools curriculums include all these issues of cultural diversity to enable them to have an appreciation of each and every tribe and their cultural practices,” he said. Chiefs have been having interaction with the Judicial service in recent weeks.
