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Access to Justice Centre

INTRODUCTION

The Access to Justice Centre (AJC) is a flagship of the Faculty of Law. It is a Centre that focuses on Access to Justice issues, inter alia research, legal aid provision, legal advisory, advocacy, law reform, clinical training and legal outreaches. It is a Centre that is used by the University as an outlet to benefit the marginalised communities, the poor, government, and to equip various institutions of the state. More importantly students are equipped with practical skills and participate in resolution of real live cases. The Center is located at No. 42 Mount Pleasant Drive, Harare.

 OUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The clinic’s aims among others are to further research and publish in the area of access to justice, provide legal services to indigent members of the public who would otherwise be unable to enforce their legal rights and to train law students in the practical aspects of dealing with clients and drafting of pleadings. The Access to Justice Centre provides innovative access to justice solutions to Zimbabwe, the region and the global village. It further provides an in-depth and thorough training to students in clinical legal education and in calculating pro-bono culture into them. More-so AJC aim at producing cutting edge research and publications on access to justice issues. Furthermore, the Centre aims at publicising and raising awareness on legal issues affecting Zimbabweans and beyond on a daily basis. It is also advisory institution to law institutions and government on policy matters affecting law reform. The Centre has also established partnership arrangements with other local and international legal institutions and Government organizations to enable our students to take advantage of a wider global learning experience offered by our partners. 

STRUCTURE OF THE CENTRE

 The staffing of the Centre is full-time University of Zimbabwe employees. The Director has overall responsibility for the administration of the Centre. The Director links the academic component planning to the total integration within the LLB and BL programmes and also helps to coordinate the instructors/clinicians. The Centre Administrator manages the day-to-day operations of the Centre and is responsible for quality control.  There  will four Lecturers to teach all the courses on offer in addition to the Director who  has a limited load of teaching. The clinic has hired one legal Practitioner and is set to have at least three registered legal practitioners who will be termed Clinical Instructors responsible for court attendances and also assisting students with proofreading their work and teaching them drafting skills. Supervision of their  work  is done by the Director, and Consultants. During their free periods’ students will accompany the lawyers to court whenever there are court attendances.  The organogram of the Centre is as follows:

 

 

STAFF COMPLIMENT

The Director’s Office.

 

Mr. RODGERS MATSIKIDZE-LLB (Hons), MPhil Law (UZ), Ph.D (Cand-Wits-SA), Director and Deputy Dean of Law

Mr. Rodgers Matsikidze is a registered legal practitioner, notary public and conveyancer. Mr. Matsikidze holds an LLB (Hons) and M.Phil Law from the University of Zimbabwe  focusing on access to justice in the Magistrates Courts of Zimbabwe. Currently he is pursuing a Ph.D  Law focusing  on access to justice in the superior courts of Zimbabwe with the University of Witwatersrand Johannesburg. Mr. Matsikidze graduated in September 2005 and he rose through ranks from being a teaching assistant to a Legal Proctor, Acting Director and Lecturer until 2015. Currently, he is the Deputy Dean of Law at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a Lecturer in Civil Procedure Courses-Lower and Superior Courts and co-teaches Labour law and Roman-Roman-Dutch Law. Under the department of commercial law, he teaches Alternative Dispute Courses-Conciliation, mediation and arbitration. Matsikidze is the Director for the Access to Justice Centre which is a legal aid clinic, industrial attachment, teaching unit and research hub on access to justice issues. He is a former Chairperson for the department of Procedural Law at the University of Zimbabwe. Mr. Matsikidze is also a former Trustee and Chairperson of Trustees of the Law Society of Zimbabwe Compensation Fund and a Councillor and Chairman Board of Examiners with the Council for Legal Education in Zimbabwe. On several occasions he is called to train lawyers under the Law Society of Zimbabwe Continuous Professional Development Programme and Council for Legal Education. He is currently the founding partner and Managing Partner of Matsikidze: Attorneys-at-Law, Global Investments| Commercial |Labour Attorneys (from the demerged partnership before) which has been existence of over a decade in existence. In addition, he is an arbitrator in Labour, commercial, political, land and socio-economic disputes and is the author of the only comprehensive textbook dedicated for Alternative Dispute Resolution in Zimbabwe titled: Alternative Dispute Resolution in Zimbabwe: A Practical Approach to Conciliation, Arbitration, Mediation and Negotiations in Zimbabwe. He has written other books in civil procedure, medical, mercantile, natural resources and environmental law although some of the books are still under publication. In 2016-17 he was one of the two drafters of the Zero Labour Amendment Bill 2017 under the ILO-GVT of Zimbabwe Labour reform project. In 2017 again, the International Labour Organization appointed him to do a, Rapid Assessment of Dispute resolution in Zimbabwe. He is a board member, Community Working Group on Health a multi-stakeholder that deals policy issues and programmes on Human Rights and Public Health. Recently in 2017 he was appointed Board Chairperson-Harare Employment Council. He is a Law Examiner with Estate Agents Council and Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe (REIZ). He Chairs Masvingo Mirror Newspaper Board.


Legal Practitioner/ Clinician

The lawyers are responsible to take instructions from clients, attend court, and also teach students the practical aspects of the law. They are members of the Law Society of Zimbabwe. In addition, they participate in outreaches conducted by the clinic. There are two vacant positions.

 Mrs Juliet Maunganidze: Legal Practitioner &  Clinician, LLBS Hons(UZ), MBA (ZOU), BBS(UZ)


 Centre Administrator.

Position is currently vacant following retirement by incumbent staff member in December 2020

Secretary: Ms. Blessing Gaidzanwa

The Centre Secretary carries out day to day Secretarial office duties.


Legal Secretary: Ms. Mary Jaure

The Legal Secretary is responsible for typing pleadings and court processes, booking appointment for Centre Clients.


Messenger/ Driver: Mr. Romeo Tagarira

The Messenger/ Driver is responsible for day to day delivery of Centre documents and court processes.

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+2634303211