Pressure on the acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda to appoint a tribunal to investigate Tourism Minister Sylvia Masebo over corruption and abuse of office allegations is mounting.
Lawyers working for the United Party for National Development (UPND) are now in the process of preparing papers for judicial review, while the originator of the tribunal, former Transport Minister William Harrington is reported to have taken the matter to the Judiciary Complaint Authority to complain about the delay in constituting the tribunal.
And speaking to the Daily Nation, a task team member to the tribunal complained that the office of the chief Justice was acting outside the law by delaying the appointment of the tribunal, despite the presentation of complaint bonafide as prescribed by law.
“Justice Chibesakunda should have automatically constituted the tribunal after all the laid down procedures was completed, but obviously this is not happening for political and legal reasons,” he said.
However, Mr Harrington could not be reached for a comment, although the task team believed him to have lodged the complaint to the Judiciary Complaint Authority.
The tribunal against Masebo had gained support from various nongovernmental organisations demanding that she should be investigated.
Mr Harrington resubmitted his application to the office of the chief justice several times and was still waiting for a response. Mr Harrington recently fulfilled all requirements for a tribunal to be constituted, in his re-application submitted to the office of the Acting Chief Justice.
Among other things submitted in his re-application was a list of 14 persons who could be subpoenaed for purposes of verifying print and electronic media publications as requested by the office of the Chief Justice.
He said a tribunal would set a good precedence for the country so that no public offices would be abused like was a case on Masebo’s alleged abuse of office.
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