We are proud to announce that the Southern and Eastern Africa Chief Justices’ Forum (SEACJFORUM) and Judicial Administrators Forum (SEAJAA) will be hosted in Seychelles on 21-23 April 2026.
As the host country, our Judiciary team is assisting in hosting these high level events. The main Forum is convened in partnership with the Chandler Judicial Forum, which will co-host this inaugural session in collaboration with the Singapore Judicial College
The Forum brings together 16 Chief Justices from across Southern and Eastern Africa. Together, they will explore how innovation and technology can strengthen the delivery of justice across the region.
The overarching theme is Judicial Leadership and Innovation. This platform will enable senior judicial leaders to exchange insights, examine global and regional best practice, and build the peer connections needed to lead judicial innovation and digitisation in their respective jurisdictions.
The SEAJAA Committee will host internal meetings and visit the Seychelles Supreme Court to see our implementation of technologies such as speech to text optimisation.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Justice Mzikamanda is the Chief Justice of Malawi. He has spent over four decades in the judiciary, rising from Resident Magistrate (1983) through the High Court (1997) to the Supreme Court of Appeal (2012). Beyond his judicial role, he has held significant positions including Director-General of the Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau, Alternative Judge for the UN Special Tribunal for Charles Taylor, and chair of multiple judiciary governance committees (training, conditions of service, budget and finance). He is also a published legal scholar and made prominent presentations at local and
international legal forums. He holds an LLB Honours from the University of Malawi (1983) and an LLM from the University of Hull, England (1992), with additional certificates in judicial administration, leadership, and anti-corruption. He is also a Hubert Humphrey Fellow.
Justice Govinden is the Chief Justice of Seychelles, whose judiciary is proud to host this inaugural Forum. Justice Govinden’s career spans both the executive and judicial branches of government. He served as Attorney General for nearly a decade, during which he led significant law reform initiatives. He also held board-level positions at the Central Bank of Seychelles and the Seychelles Financial Services Authority, giving him broad experience in financial regulation and institutional governance. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Mauritius and a Barristers Final Examination Certificate from the Mauritius Council of Legal Education. He was called to the Bar of Seychelles as an Attorney at Law in 2000. His remarks at the opening ceremony will set the stage for two days of substantive dialogue on judicial innovation and reform.
Justice Kwek Mean Luck of the Supreme Court of Singapore will be a facilitator at the Chandler Judicial Forum 2026. He has served as Solicitor-General, Dean of the Civil Service College, and Senior Counsel before his appointment to the High Court. He also co-chairs the Singapore Judicial College cluster as part of the Singapore Judicial Service Implementation Committee. Justice Kwek holds a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours from Cambridge University and a Master of Laws from Harvard University. He will lead the Forum’s session on technology and artificial intelligence in courts. He will walk the Chief Justices through Singapore’s experience in developing one of the most successful judicial technology programme. His session will address use of AI in courts, including the risks, ethical considerations, and mitigation approaches that judicial leaders must grapple with.
MEET THE FACILITATORS
Mohammed Jalees is currently Director of Service Policy and Leadership at ServiceSG, a department under the Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. He was previously Director of the Access to Justice Division at the Singapore Courts, where he led efforts to make the justice system more user-centric and accessible. His session will invite Chief Justices to examine what innovation means in practice. It will draw on Singapore’s public sector experience to identify the key enablers of institutional transformation.
Lerato Mbele is an award-winning international broadcaster and facilitator. Over a nine-year tenure at BBC World News, she hosted the network’s flagship Africa business programmes and produced documentaries connecting African industries to global trade. Her career has seen her interview global leaders including Bill Gates, Christine Lagarde, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the late Kofi Annan, and she has moderated high-level plenaries at the World Bank, World Economic Forum, World Trade Organization, and United Nations General Assembly, among others.
Ron Chari is the Executive Director of the Chandler Institute of Justice. He previously held senior roles at the leading global financial institutions, including the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank, working in more than 30 African countries on the transactional and policy dimensions of international finance and investment. His sector experience spans infrastructure, energy, private equity, agribusiness, and mining. He co-founded a legal research think tank and a private equity business. This experience gives him a practitioner’s view of how sound laws and capable institutions reduce risk, strengthen governance, and drive long-term
prosperity in emerging markets. Ron holds an MBA (Finance) from Imperial College London, a Master’s in Law and Economics from Queen Mary University of London, and an LL.B from the University of Zimbabwe.
Sangwani Nyimbiri is a distinguished Zambian legal practitioner. He currently serves as Coordinator of the Southern and Eastern Africa Chief Justices’ Forum (SEACJF). He is the Registrar of the Zambian High Court (Chambers), and also serves as Legal Assistant in the Office of the Chief Justice. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Master of Science (MSc) in Peace, Leadership and Conflict Resolution, both from the University of Zambia. He also possesses a Postgraduate Diploma in Legislative Drafting, is a member of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel, and an accredited Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) practitioner. Sangwani is also a published author and editor. He was a member of the technical team that developed the first Toolkit for Judicial Oversight of Artificial Intelligence in African Elections through the Africa Electoral Justice Network (AEJN).
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