Acess to Legal Education and the Legal Profession in Zimbabwe.

Abstract

Consistent with the.discrimination against black citizens which characterized Rhodesian settler rule, access to legal education and the legal profession was deliberately and almost totally denied to blacks until Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. This fact, combined with the exodus, particularly of whites in the legal branches of the civil service, resulted in the democratically elected government having to take radical measures to deal with the situation. One aspect of this was the establishment of crash courses, initially taught.largely by academics in the Law Department of the University of Zimbabwe to specially recruited students who would not have qualified for normal entry to the University. These were destined to fill posts as prosecutors and magistrates in the Magistrates’ Courts and as presiding officers in the newly created Community Courts.