Retired Zimbabwe judges may lose pensions

Retired Zimbabwe judges may lose pensions

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By Lebo Nkatazo

RETIRED judges of the Zimbabwean Supreme and High Courts may lose
their pension benefits if they refuse to be recalled for duty by President Robert Mugabe, according to new government proposals.

Those who refuse to be recalled would not be given any remuneration, according to a judges Pension Scheme notice gazetted last week.

The notice said the country’s pension office would be asked to withhold any pension benefits to retired judicial officers for the period they would have refused to serve.

“The President, after consultation with the judicial service Commission, may direct the pensions officer to withhold any pension benefit to which the full pensioner was entitled under this scheme,” reads part of the notice.

“The fact that a full pensioner is engaged in some other employment or business shall not constitute a just cause for refusing to serve unless the nature of the employment or business render it inappropriate for him or her to undertake the service,” it adds.

The notice added that all recalled judges would not be entitled to any remuneration.

“A full pensioner who undertakes any service when called upon to do so in terms of subsection (2)… shall not be entitled to remuneration for that service other than payment by way of travelling and subsistence allowances and out of pocket allowances as the President may specify."

The government has been increasingly relying on retired judges to preside over cases in which local judges has been reluctant to preside over. A retired judge is currently presiding over a hearing in which some banks that have been placed under curatorship by the Reserve Bank are challenging the takeover of their assets.

Another retired judge, Justice Mtambanengwe, now judge on the Namibian Supreme Court, presided over the trial of fugitive High Court judge, Justice Benjamin Paradza.

Several senior judges have quit in recent years, citing political interference and poor remuneration.
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