UPDATE US ON CONCOURT HOUSE CONSTRUCTION
Dear Editor,
What has happened to the investigation regarding an opposition party that is building a home for a concourt judge in Ibex?
Whether the story is true or not must be investigated in order to put Zambian minds at rest given the importance that the Constitutional Court has assumed in the last few weeks. Everybody with a difference with the Government seems to gravitate to the Constitutional court instead of following the normal structures of conflict resolution.
There is absolutely no reason why some people have been rushing to the concourt over matters that have already been concluded in fora where they did not dispute issues that were subsequently adjudicated upon.
It will be very unfair that some Zambians want to be more equal than others by subverting the judicial system for the simple reason that they may have favorable attention due to irregular relationships.
It is for this reason that, I wish to appeal to the Minister of Justice Honorable Given Lubinda to accelerate these matters which have been placed in the public domain by opposition leaders who are concerned that their matters will not be dealt with the impartiality they deserve. These fears are well founded because we have situations where the very people abusing the system today did the same thing during the Mwanawasa regime.
The capture of the judiciary by some corrupt people as alluded to by the President is a real issue which will be ignored at our peril. Many countries which have allowed corruption to pervade their judiciaries have paid dearly because loss of confidence leads to serious erosion of trust in the integrity of the entire governance system.
It is also important that Government should look into the composition of the Judicial Complaints Authority which appears to have taken on more power as to interfere with matter that are properly before courts of law.
We must guard our judiciary against the intrigues of thoise whose interest is to subvert justice for their own interest.
Moffat Chirwa