- The appointments were on the recommendations of the Judicial Service Commission by the President of Namibia.
The Namibian Office of Judiciary declared in a statement the appointment of Justice Rita Makarau as the acting Judge of the Supreme Court in Namibia and Justice Moses Chinhengo of Alpha Media Holdings Ombudsman as the acting Judge of the High Court.
According to the statement, the appointment of Lady Justice Rita Makarua and Mr. Justice Moses H. Chinhengo was by the President of the Republic of Namibia Hage Geingob, on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission.
The statement reads “the Judicial Service Commission announces that His Excellency the President of the Republic of Namibia has on the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission appointed the following acting judges to the Supreme Court; Lady Justice Rita Makarua has been appointed as an acting Judge of the Supreme Court from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024”.
“His Excellency the President has on the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission, also appointed the following persons as acting judges of the High Court to enable that court to deal expeditiously with its work; Mr. Justice Moses H. Chinhengo has been appointed as an acting Judge of the High Court for the period 18th September 2023 to 31st December 2023”, the statement added.
Rita Makarau, formerly Chair of the Zimbabwe Election Commission, is from Zimbabwe. Prior to her current position, she held the positions of Judge-president of the High Court of Zimbabwe and Judge of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe. She is also a former secretary of the Judicial Services Commission and a justice of the Zimbabwean Supreme Court. Makarua is Zimbabwe’s first female judge president. Currently, she is a Judge of the Zimbabwean Constitutional Court.
With 16 years of judicial experience, Justice Chinhengo is a retired judge from the High Court of Zimbabwe and the High Court of Botswana and also is a member of the AMH Editorial Board. Chinhengo also served as an acting Judge for Namibia’s Supreme Court in 2021. He is currently serving as the Acting Justice of the Court of Appeal for the Kingdom of Lesotho.
This new development responds to the statement of Chief Justice Peter Shivute of Namibia to address the gender imbalance on the country’s Supreme Court bench which had no women judges.