PREAMBLE
WHEREAS it is recognized that the Constitution has vested the Judicial Authority of Zimbabwe in the Judiciary and has further entrenched the universally accepted norm of Independence of the Judiciary;

AND WHEREAS it is recognized by the Zimbabwean judiciary that a competent, independent and impartial judiciary is an indispensable and essential ingredient for good governance and the maintenance of the rule of law in any modern democratic society.
AND WHEREAS it is recognized that public confidence in the judicial system and in the moral authority and integrity of the judiciary is of utmost importance in a democratic society.
AND WHEREAS it is essential that judicial officers, individually and collectively, respect and honour the judicial office as a public trust and strive to enhance and maintain confidence in the judicial system;

AND WHEREAS it is recognized that it is primarily the responsibility of the judiciary of Zimbabwe to promote and maintain high standards of judicial conduct;

AND WHEREAS the Constitution provides for the impeachment of a judicial officer, it is recognized that no formal complaints mechanism is provided to deal with complaints about judicial officers falling short of impeachable conduct;
AND WHEREAS the judicial officers of the Republic of Zimbabwe adopt, individually and collectively, this Code of Ethics to be the beacon of judicial conduct, now and in the future;

NOW THEREFORE IT is hereby notified that the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, in terms of sections 18 and 25 of the Judicial Service Act [Chapter 7:18] (No. 10 of 2006), has approved the following regulations made by the Judicial Service Commission:—

PART I
PRELIMINARY
Title

1. These regulations may be cited as the Judicial Service (Code of Ethics) Regulations, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as “this Code”).
   Interpretation
2. In this Code
   “court staff” means the Secretary of the Commission and all other support staff of the Judicial Service;
   “disciplinary committee” means a disciplinary committee appointed under Part III;
   “family member”or “associate”, in relation to a judicial officer, means any or all of the following , as may be appropriate to the context
   (a) any member of the judicial officer’s family, that is, the judicial officer’s spouse, son, daughter, son-in-law or daughter-in-law or any other close relative;
   (b) any friend of the judicial officer, being a person with whom the judicial officer interacts socially on a regular or frequent basis, or a person to whom the judicial officer is emotionally close, and includes a cohabitant;
   (c) any person the nature of whose social, business or other association with the judicial officer may, in certain contexts, be regarded by any fair-minded person as promotive of potential conflict between the judicial officer’s private interests and judicial duties;
   “head of court or division concerned” means any of the following, as may be appropriate
   (a) the Chief Justice;
   (b) the Judge President;
   (c) the Senior President of the Court;
   (d) the Senior President of the Administrative Court;
   (e) the judicial officer who is the head of any division of the foregoing courts;
   “immaterial grounds” in relation to equality provided for in section 9 includes but is not limited to, race, colour, gender, religion, national origin, disability, age, marital status, social and economic status, and other like causes;
   “judicial officer” means any of the following, whether appointed in a substantive or acting capacity
   (a) the Chief Justice;
   (b) the Deputy Chief Justice and other Judges of the Supreme Court;
   (c) the Judge President and the other Judges of the High Court;
   (d) the Senior President of the Labour Court and other Presidents of the Labour Court;
   (e) the Senior President of the Administrative Court and other Presidents of the Administrative Court;
   Application
   3.(1) This Code applies to every judicial officer
   (2) For the avoidance of doubt it is declared that no minimum standard prescribed in this Code shall be taken to derogate from the highest standards of ethics and propriety expected of judicial officers.