A Commissioner of Oaths is appointed or designated as such in terms of the Justices of the peace and commissioners of oaths Act and only responsible for administering oaths and certifying documents. A Notary Public, also referred to as a Notary, is an admitted Legal Practitioner who has acquired specialised expertise and written a specific notarial practice exam.  Notaries have statutory and common law powers to prepare and attest certain specialized legal documents, administer oaths and perform other wide-ranging administrative functions of a national and international nature.


Differences
Basically, a notary has more powers than a Commissioner of Oaths. A Commissioner of Oaths cannot verify that a statement is true, simply that the proper procedures have been followed. Notarization as performed by a notary, is the verification of a document as valid. In addition, a notary can draw up documents, such as contracts and deeds. Documents authenticated by a Notary Public can be used outside Zimbabwe whereas documents certified by a Commissioner of Oaths cannot be used outside Zimbabwe.


Authentication and Certification of a document?
Authentication of documents is the process by which a notary public certify the identity of the signatory of the document by affixing a certificate to the document which verifies the authenticity of the signature of the person who signed it whereas certification of a document is where a notary public or commissioner of oaths confirms that a document is a true copy or a duplication of the original document.


The main difference is that authentication verifies the truthfulness of the signature on the document and the identity of the person who signed it whilst on the other hand certification only confirms that the document is a true copy of the original. When authenticating a document a notary public also verifies the capacity of the person who signed the document. On the other hand certification only confirms that the contents of the duplicate are the same as those on the original document. This means that the contents of an authenticated document can be a legally acceptable as true while those of a certified document cannot.


When authenticating a document, a notary public issues a notarial certificate of authentication this means that a seal will be placed on the document whereas when certifying a document, he simply stamps and signs.

Certification of documents can be done by both a notary public and a commissioner of oaths while authentication can only be done by a notary public.


For more information on Notary Publics and any other inquiries kindly get hold of our Notarial Practice Group on info@mmmlawfirm.co.zw