HARARE – Prosecutor General Loice Matanda-Moyo has ordered prosecutors to remain strictly apolitical and serve all Zimbabweans equally, as she pushed for sweeping improvements in the quality and speed of prosecutions.
Opening a Superior Courts Appeals procedures training in Harare on Monday Matanda-Moyo said the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) must anchor its work on the Constitution and the public interest not politics.
“We do not represent any partisan interest or political faction,” she said. “We represent the Constitution and the 16 million people of Zimbabwe.”
She warned that prosecutors who fail to uphold this standard risk undermining public confidence in the justice system.
“When we fail… when we lose cases we should have won, when we delay justice through ignorance we do not simply lose a file. We erode public trust. We make a mockery of the scales of justice.”
Matanda-Moyo said the training, supported by senior private lawyers, is meant to produce a new generation of highly skilled prosecutors capable of handling complex cases in superior courts.
“I want prosecutors ready to respond immediately, decisively, and brilliantly,” she said, adding that delays caused by poor preparation and weak legal arguments would no longer be tolerated.
She made it clear that the role of a prosecutor goes beyond securing convictions.
“We do not seek convictions; we seek just outcomes,” she said. “The prosecutor must always be right, and the prosecutor must be fair.”
In a firm ethical stance, she said both wrongful convictions and wrongful acquittals amount to a failure of justice.
“Sending an innocent person to jail is exactly the same moral failure as acquitting a guilty one.”
Matanda-Moyo also sought to redefine relations between prosecutors and defence lawyers, dismissing the notion of rivalry.
The Prosecutor-General said ongoing reforms, including intensified training and digitalisation, are aimed at restoring professionalism and efficiency within the NPAZ.
