Lord Justice

by mazuba mwiinga

Its been said that justice should not only be done, but always seen to be done in all matters that come before our courts of law irrespective of who is involved.

Victor Chilekwa’s contempt of Supreme Court judgement should not be dismissed as a mere case of an insolent litigant with an abusive language. Much as we know that sometimes the means may not justify the end, we should also realise that there is no smoke without fire.

We know for sure that there are rules and procedures to be followed when one is aggrieved over something; but sometimes it becomes so suspicious when one realises how un fairly he may feel to have been treated especially when one sees that he has reached a dead end of the judicial process of his case still feeling being stabbed from his back.

Chilekwa stated that “law was not like witchcraft or shrines that had to be kept secret... (but that its there) to control the exercise of constitutional power” (The Post March 31, 2010). And I believe it’s this ‘secrecy’ that is now making every Jim and Jack nosy in an effort to find out what is there hidden in law books that seems too sacred to be known by the Public.

I feel such statements tell us clearly that there is something deadly wrong with our Constitution. The checks and balances principle of separation of powers as defined by French scholar Montesqueieu whose ideas come from another prominent scholar John Locke, are now reaping its fruits of our disregarding that which was to bring sanity in our judicial system.

If citizens of a nation reach a stage where they are able to see what they claim to be inconsistence and unfairness in the judicial process, and fearlessly without any remorse, spit it out so angrily, then we should rake our minds and ask ourselves why?

When an officer of the court (more than15 years of law practice) dares the bench and calls it “stupid judgment by stupid judges”, one has to review the perception our courts of law have been exposed to. It means people day in and day out, are losing hope, respect and confidence in our judicial system. And I believe all this goes back to our poorly drafted constitution that gives the President so much powers over the arm of the judicially.

The President appoints the Supreme Court Justices without any consultations from any one. How he chooses them is no one’s business. And such a system will always pump some doubts and suspicions on citizens as to why the President chose that particular Judge because his actions has no other arm with powers to check his appointments.

Justice Mambilima said “wild unsubstantiated allegations of corruption against any member of the bench could not be condoned”. But the learned Justice should also know that corruption is not like murder, where you will be able to bring the dead body or show a certificate of post-mortem from the medical Doctor; but it’s rather a perceived crime according to someone’s conduct in society. That’s why it’s so hard for one to prove that someone else is corrupt.

Judge Philip Musonda’s Law Lecture of 2007 as quoted by Chilekwa that, 'We as judges are called Lords because we are expected to be pure...” clearly shows us a guiding point of principled perception expected of judges. Since it’s just a perception just as corruption is, we can therefore only suspect that one judge is corrupt when his conducts becomes ‘impure’ even when we don’t have tangible evidence to show that that show of ‘impurity’ is actually due to corruption.

The Victor Chilekwa case therefore as Justice Mambilima said that never in the history of the country has such an insult been publicly uttered by a lawyer against a court; stands as a pure precedent that needs intensive investigation as to why people have lost confidence even in the highest law interpreters of our land.

Copyright: mazuba mwiinga 31.03.2010

Cry the Bereaved Zambia

by Mazuba Mwiinga




FR. BWALYA

TIME tells of a people who when suffocated with despotism, that has all its resources to defend itself violently, patriotic citizens mostly take the logical route of non violence in driving their points home; and such a measure always shaks those in power with drenches of fear like a palm tree in a tornado.

The rumbling words from one famous classic novel by Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved Country say it well:

“This is no time to talk of hedges and fields, or the beauties of any country. . . . Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end”.

And for sure our Zambia is never a beloved nation, but a country in bereavement. What we see happening to Fr. Bwalya today is a mark post for everyone to know the course of Rupiah’s future actions on those who fight brave battles like Fr. Bwalya. We cry loudly today for our bereaved mother Zambia, because what was permissible then when multi-party politics re-entered our arena, is now a resounding choking noise of death chambers; just to silence the right cause and allow illegalities to continue.

What we voted for then; legacy so we were told is now illegal and our courageous brothers like Fr. Bwalya are sent behind bars.

But one thing, one Rupiah Banda ignores to know is that; steel bars do not make a person a prisoner, nor high concentrated Prison Walls make one a jail bird, for freedom comes from the heart and not from out of confinement. If the heart is free of what a person is fighting for; no rehabilitation is taking place and no retribution is being achieved even when you throw him in jaws of incarceration.

That’s why people like Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in Prison, but their hearts never failed their ideals and what they fought for was at last achieved without any remorse of being in Prison.

Rupiah Banda must learn and learn very quickly that it is not permissible to add to one's possessions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men for such development has only one true name, and that is misuse, abuse and mistreatment and is punishable by the law.

Although nothing has come yet, something is here already. It has started with a simple red card in the air; a paper without a mouth that has instilled so much fear in those who beg for authority. By dragging Fr. Bwalya to the court they think one thing is about to be finished, but they don’t know that here is something that is only begun.

We know that the darkest hour comes before dawn and when dawn finally comes, of our liberation, from the fear of repression and the burden of fear, who knows who gets out and who gets inside State House - that is our sacred secret.

Fr. Bwalya needs a pat on the back because he has shown us how cowardly ‘giants’ can be; just a piece of paper made out of wood has made them spend sleepless nights in bed. The silent noise he has made with this paper tells volumes of how this fight is not just his, but for every patriotic Zambian who cares and cries for their bereaved country.

Something deep is touched here; something that is good and deep is coming for our tormented nation.

Copyright: March 16, 2010

Chiluba's master dribbling at work

by Mazuba Mwiinga

UNTIL I read Sata’s words in The Post (March 5, 2010) that Chiluba’s loyalty to Rupiah is false, I had thought I was the only one with such boggling ideas, that there is something queer about Chiluba’s loyalty to Rupiah.

Though not my vantage point in seeing Chiluba’s tantrums as that of Sata, I have stifling feelings that Chiluba as a self confessed ‘master dribbler’, doesn’t just decide to embarrass himself in the public for nothing. It may sound fun and a bit silly; but if you put two and two together, you will realize that Chiluba’s hero-worshiping Rupiah has a lot to do with his wife Regina who is currently waiting for the out come of her appeal over her sentence.

Many public opinion sale the idea that Chiluba is paying back for his acquittal, but I think other wise because for the look of things, the out come of Chiluba’s case was a bit of a 50 – 50 chance for him to see the inside of jail even if he was going to be found guilty, even if Mr. Mwanawasa was still alive today; for a pardon was highly likely to have been offered.

Many Zambians know Chiluba’s democratic principles and system that it is that of pull down and destroy; for his own gain. He knows which people to target with his venoms so as to please Rupiah who has shown us that as Master for this country, he is capable of driving the wheels of justice in any direction he so wishes.

Chiluba knows so well that every hero becomes a bore at last; and he is therefore using Rupiah’s lack of political tactic to mess things around and divert the nation’s attention to his presence while some heavy hands some where is busy tightening the bolts of justice for his wife. We saw this happening in 1996 when our Constitutional debate had its attention on clauses like ‘parentage’ and ‘third term’ while no one talked about the 50 plus one per cent which was secretly removed.

He knows that human beings treat power like a candy in the hands of a child - never to be shared with anybody so much that they stay on and on, driving the ship towards an iceberg, cursing the screaming passengers that it is their eyes playing tricks on them! And he does these public screams and scorn in support of Rupiah just to blind Rupiah from seeing the reality of his political picture so that he could think Chiluba is doing him a favor, when in fact Chiluba knows that he is creating a strategy for his own benefits.

Chiluba I believe is so scared that should nothing happen to his wife’s appeal by 2011, he may have to leave Zambia without his wife, because what he wants is to have his wife’s case be done with before 2011 elections and bid Zambia fare well for good.

Copyright: Mazuba Mwiinga 16.03.2010

Chiluba Rupiah

Chiluba and Rupiah fooling themselves

by Mazuba Mwiinga

What a mind poking query the Post newspaper's March 2, 2010 editorial comment posed! Chiluba’s acquittal: who is fooling who?

Trying to get the right response to this question reminds me of Chiluba’s famous quote reported by the Press some where around 1983. Chiluba as a daring unionist then was reported as having said: “Politicians are so forgetful because when we remind them of the promises they made they say we are inciting the people”

Today Rupiah Banda is on record for having a heavy hand on Chiluba’s acquittal by Magistrate Chinyama and when we tell him that posterity will judge him to the last hair of his life for his misdeeds, he says we just have no respect for criticizing the elderly.

Indeed politicians are so forgetful. Rupiah Banda knows so well what kind of president Chiluba was. This was a man whose government initiated Rupiah’s Party president then, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda’s death attempt when the State Police shot at him in Kabwe in August 23, 1997. It’s the same Chiluba who locked up Kaunda on Christmas Day in December 25, 1997 in Chimbokaila State Prison only to have him in House arrest at the mercy of Dr. Julius Mwalimu Nyerere of Tanzania who begged Chiluba. It’s the same Chiluba who withdrew Kaunda’s pension for 10 years, only to be paid by the Mwanawasa administration. Yet today Banda says Chiluba was a damn good president. What a gag!

It’s so amusing really to note that even a lay person in the knowledge of law would wonder as to how a person who in court gives un sworn evidence could be believed on what he is saying. The question is, if you are telling the truth, why should you refuse to swear?

The Chiluba acquittal may seem a dead log at the moment, but Rupiah and Chiluba should bear in their mind that this case is a sleeping giant; a time bomb ticking by the day waiting for the right time to explode.

It’s said that as we spread the bed, we should be ready to lie on it. The more one will try to ignore their misdeeds, the further their fate coats their lives. Zambians know very well; in fact too well to forget how Rupiah is trying to aid Chiluba from being gripped by the fair hands of justice, thinking that because Zambians are well known as docile people then he has succeeded in fooling them; God forbids. Chiluba and Rupiah are the ones fooling themselves.

Who knew that Kaunda will one day leave State House after those 27 boring, irritating and amusing years? Who knew that Chiluba will end up an infamous former president stripped off his protective plumages of immunity for his 10 gluttonous, uncaring, painful, priding and selfish years? Zambia is a democratic nation and no matter how, one seemingly powerful person will try to twist his leadership to remain in power, a day will still come when time to vacate the seat calls.

It may take another decade or generation of leaders but posterity always takes time to correct what otherwise was ignored in the past. And that time whether we like it or not, will come. And today’s crocodile tears of joy we see in Chiluba will be tomorrow’s true tears of paying for his crimes.

Copyright: March 2, 2010

Chiluba reaped the presidency he did not sow

by Mazuba Mwiinga

Its really thought poking and disgusting hearing sentiments from one bragging man Frederick Chiluba that he called for the abolition of one-party state in 1989.

If what Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika testifies in the book by Amos Malupenga Levy Patrick Mwanawasa – an incentive for posterity; is to go by, then Chiluba is a blue liar. He is a broad day light liar because if he called for the abolishing of the one-party state, why then did he stand on the fence and in several instances abandoned his friends when they were busy organizing the Garden House meeting?

On Page 45 of the book: Levy Patrick Mwanawasa – An incentive for posterity, Aka says in part; “Again, there was a question of chairing. My idea was that Mr. Chiluba who was ZCTU Chairman-General, should be our chairman and I was very disappointed when he declined to take up the chairmanship. I was even more disappointed for the reasons he gave for declining”.

Chiluba declined to be part of the revolutionary team because he was scared of Kaunda. He was a coward who wanted to reap where he did not sow. He wanted to watch the game from the dressing room and appear when the storm was calm just loot what his courageous and learned friends fought and risked for.

According to Aka’s testimony, Chiluba was supposed to sign the invitation letters as ZCTU Chairman-General together with Aka who was Economics Association of Zambia Chairman, but Chiluba again refused to sign the invitation letters. Aka took the letters to Newstead Zimba who too was a Unionist but he refused to sign them so was Derrick Chitala.

It only took Aka’s courage and militancy for him to go it alone and signed the invitation letters and sent them to people.

Aka further on Page 47 of the book says, “The night before the meeting I was getting pressure from Mr. Chiluba that we should not hold the meeting because they had information that we would be arrested. I was very annoyed to get that message…..Mr. Chiluba twice sent his director of research at ZCTU, Mr. James Mazyopa to persuade me not to go to Garden House for the meeting the following day….I showed Mr. Mazyopa the door and asked him to go and tell Mr. Chiluba and his people, ‘By tomorrow morning, they should decide whether they are with us or with Kaunda…’”.

According to Aka, it was the late Remmy Mushota who came later in the evening and encouraged him to go ahead with the meeting. Remmy is quoted as having had said “Whether they (invited people) come or not, we should go ahead with the meeting, even if we are just going to be the two of us.”

Aka states that on the day of the meeting Chiluba and Chitalu Sampa who was ZCTU Financial secretary instead of going to the Garden House Meeting, rather went to State House for a ZIMCO meeting, but the meeting was cancelled and Chiluba and Sampa started making phone calls to check if Aka and friends were arrested.

Chiluba and Sampa only appeared close to 12:00hrs when they had heard that actually Garden House was not just packed but also fired up.

So for Chiluba to brag about bringing multi-partism is a total twist of the real truth about people who were the founding fathers of MMD and champions of multi-party politics in this country. Chiluba used their courage to gain his lust for power. Actually as one reads the book further, you are able to see that Chiluba actually hoodwinked his way up the leadership of MMD.

In fact Chiluba did not win the 1991 elections because people wanted him; but rather it was an impulse vote from people who were frustrated, hungry and angry and just needed a change of Presidency. In such a situation of limited choices, people were ready to vote anything the moved regardless of whether it’s sensible or not.

It’s so sickening to continue hearing a man who is supposed to be enjoying his retirement, continue advertising his arrogance, lies and deceit to us. Why doesn’t he just shut up and enjoy his acquittal.

Copyright: February 25, 2010