In an interview with The Financial Times, President Emmerson Mnangagwa gave his clearest hint that he will appoint another female as the new Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson following
Rita Makarau’s surprise resignation.
Daily News reports that there are three female judges that are being considered as Makarau’s replacement and these are; Supreme Court judge, Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza, and High Court judges Loice Matanda Moyo and Priscilla Chigumba. Sources told Daily News that Chigumba is now front-runner to be Zec chairperson after Matanda-Moyo lost out because she is wife to Foreign Affairs and International Trade minister Sibusiso Moyo, a retired army general who actively took part in last year’s military intervention, and her appointment could be viewed as too blatant.
In the interview with The Financial Times Mnangagwa said:
Currently, there’s no head. The head resigned, the chairperson of the commission, … Makarau, resigned. I believe that by Friday I will have appointed another — this week. If the vice-chairperson is a man, the chairperson must be a woman, so I’m looking for a woman. Secondly, the woman must have been a judge or a lawyer qualified to be a judge. I had names brought to me by the chief justice to say which judges — the head of the Law Society — which persons.
So we, of course, have several women who sent in their CVs and I believe by tomorrow or Friday — because there must be consultation between me and, in Parliament, the speaker and the Justice Commission — I believe that by Friday this will have been completed because I gave them the names last week. Then I’ll appoint one. We believe that we need somebody with integrity, an impeccable record in terms of his or her CV. That’s what will guide us.
Mnangagwa’s plan to appoint Makarau’s successor by Friday was scuttled by his trip to Davos, Switzerland.
More: Daily News
