It is extremely difficult to fathom the extent to which Zambia’s judicial system has suddenly broken down, so broken that the rule of law and the respect of the country’s most important piece of legislation – the constitution – is as bad as a collection of a few pieces of toilet paper rolled together with some inscription no one bothers consider.
The earlier Zambians admit there a big problem in the country the better to finding a lasting solution in the interest of the future generation. No prizes for guessing why barely two years after installing one Michael Sata in State House, the situation has degenerated faster than the speed of the Internet in Zambia.
George Kunda, the late Vice-President, once warned Zambians when Post Newspaper editor Fred M’membe had teamed up with President Michael Sata to oust fourth Republican president Rupiah Banda. Kunda, may his soul rest in peace, was a dedicated lawyer who served the Law Association of Zambia at the same time he was a columnist for The Post Newspaper – at the time a vibrant mouthpiece for majority of the poor Zambians.
That means Kunda had a close relationship with the now Patriotic Front chief propagandist Fred M’membe. Kunda went on to become Attorney General and justice minister in President Levy Mwanawasa’s government. After years of arm-twisting Mwanawasa, M’membe successfully garnered some space to call the government shots but only to a certain extent.
What M’membe may then have been interested in was some ordinary business connections but the fact that he had tested power and realized how sweet it was, he yearned for more. And through those schemes, his midnight meetings at State House with Mwanawasa, there are people who monitored and pierced through his narrow thinking.
Kunda was one of them and he vehemently would oppose some of his queer suggestions to Mwanawasa. And because Mwanawasa trusted Kunda more than M’membe, your guess whose advise was more genuine to the third Republican president is as good as mine.
Moreover, Mwanawasa was no ordinary constable in the colonial police like Sata. You therefore needed limits to the extent with which you pushed your lucky.
Mwanawasa, in as much as he had given in to The Post schemes, had a credible education background and the extent to which he was manipulated was very limited otherwise the prevailing situation would have been worse if the likes of Kunda allowed it to take its root under Mwanawasa.
So, when Kunda appeared on one Sunday afternoon to feature on Radio Phoenix’s Sunday Interview revealing to the nation how M’membe wanted to hold hostage Rupiah in similar manner he attempted with Mwanawasa, few believed him. It was actually mistaken as victimization of a private citizen like M’membe.
Kunda went on radio and said M’membe wanted to hold Heads of State hostage and control key constitution offices such as that of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Attorney General, the Speaker of the National and the Judiciary. This he could not do under Mwanawasa. M’membe wanted total control of former DPP Chalwe Farai Mchenga after they organized the murder of Mukelebai Mukelebai. It didn’t work.
Kunda was a no nonsense as Attorney General so was former Chief Justice Ernest Sakala and former Speaker of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa.
So, M’membe had no power over those offices even if he was in good books with Mwanawasa.
But true to Kunda’s pronouncements, M’membe today controls the judiciary through the inept and illegal Acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda. And because of the incompetence of that old woman, we have a parallel judicial system one administered at the Supreme Court while the other is under the discretion of M’membe as ‘Chief Justice’, Mumba Malila as his deputy and Wynter Kabimba as the Judge in Charge, Mutembo Nchito and his brother Nchima are justices.
The Rhodes Park domiciled judiciary is more effective and powerful but unconstitutional than what Chibesakunda superintends because judgments are written elsewhere and endorsed in her office.
This is the extent to which M’membe controls all the arms of government more so that we have a dummy as head of the Executive.
And this is the problem the Zambian people are facing and will have to endure until Sata leaves office whether through the ballot or any other imminent natural occurrences.
For as long as the status quo remains, Zambia will continue with a parallel judiciary, a biased and an incredibly shame of a Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini, a disgracefully incompetent DPP, a crooked and discredited substantive Acting Chief Justice, an intelligent but embarrassingly foolish Attorney General like Malila who is only being used as a porn. It actually explains why we are at this crossroads.
With such a list of distasteful characters running key constitutional institution under the command of a private citizen wielding so much power that they pee at his sight, Zambia is breaking down at supersonic speed.
Take the judiciary for instance and the many decisions it has made since Ernest Sakala was forced out by these criminals in their cry for those useless judicial reforms and assess if the situation is better than was the previous case. It’s actually worse!
In a space of one year or so, there have been terrible decisions, extremely terrible court rulings one shudders to imagine the precedence they have set.
The Supreme Court majority ruling on the suspended judges was the epitome of the embarrassment this group of criminals has brought to the judicial system in Zambia. There is absolutely nowhere we are headed to if Sata fails to tame the cartel because before he realizes, the situation will be out of control.
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