DISBAND JCC - MUMBI

…proposes that only retired judges should be appointed

DISBAND the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) and only appoint retired judges, former UPND presidential spokesperson Edward Mumbi has demanded.

He said serving lawyers should not be members of the Commission because they had partisan interests to protect from the cases they were handling.

It was not proper, he said, for lawyers to be determining the fate of serving judges and judicial officers.

Meanwhile, Mr Mumbi has charged that JCC has no authority to be choosing judges on behalf of the Judiciary.

He has challenged JCC to tell the nation their terms of reference and its full composition.

In a statement issued to Daily Nation in his personal capacity, Mr Mumbi cautioned Zambians to be concerned regarding the limitation of powers of the Judicial Complains Authority.

He said JCC was not anywhere in the hierarchy of the judiciary for it to usurp the powers of the Chief Justice.

“JCC cannot make decisions of changing judges when the matter is still active in court.

“If a litigant is aggrieved he or she can appeal to the higher courts,” Mr Mumbi said.

He said JCC cannot usurp the powers of the court.

“I would like to know the terms of reference of the JCC because it is dangerous in a situation where a litigant has access to the JCC.

He said before making decisions the JCC should first of all find out if a matter has been disposed of, otherwise they risked interfering in the judicial process.

Mr Mumbi said now the JCC was trying to show that they had more powers than the judiciary itself which should not be the case.

He said JCC cannot be demanding for the removal of judges, adding that it would be taking a dangerous position.

“So we need to know their terms of reference because it now seems like judiciary will to be consulting JCC before appointing judges and judges will be finding it difficult to be making judgements knowing that JCC is more superior to the judiciary,” Mr Mumbi said.

He wondered whether JCC was now the one supervising the judiciary.

“Are they the ones now supervising the courts? Those who can go and choose a judge to handle the matter because they are above the Chief Justice?” questioned Mr Mumbi.

“Where are we as country regarding the independence of the judiciary if the JCC can be stopping judges from handling matters so where does that leave the independence of the judiciary? Who is JCC and how many are they?”

Mr Mumbi said as far as he was concerned President Edgar Lungu had not yet appointed a fully-fledged JCC.

He said it was unfortunate that JCC had usurped powers of the judiciary despite having so many high profiled cases involving governance and ministers.