Jack Mwiimbu
KITWE High Court Judge Catherine Makungu has issued a bench warrant against United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema for deliberately missing court.
This is in a matter in which lawyers representing acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda have applied to the Kitwe High Court to cite Mr Hichilema for contempt of court for allegedly commenting on the acting Chief Justice position when the matter is still in court.
The Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) has challenged the appointment of Justice Chibesakunda as Chief Justice.
When the matter came up for hearing in the contempt application case yesterday, Justice Makungu noted that Mr Hichilema was absent.
“I am convinced that he is aware of these proceedings and was aware of them even before the matter last came up for hearing because I do not see how his advocates would come to court without their client’s instructions but with copies of the application since it has been proven that the application was in accordance with my order for substituted service advertised in the Daily Mail of 28 and 29 July, 2014,” Justice Makungu said.
She said Mr Hichilema must have seen the advertisements and that the purpose of serving such applications was to make the respondent or alleged contemnor aware of the application so that the court may give him a chance to be heard.
“In this case, he is aware of the proceedings and has appointed a firm of advocates to represent him and I have given him a chance to be heard. I will, therefore, not allow him to continue delaying these proceedings by deliberately not accompanying his advocates to court,” Justice Makungu said.
She said she would not condone the way Mr Hichilema’s lawyer was handling the matter and advised him to properly advise his client from now onwards.
Justice Makungu said she had no intentions of embarrassing Mr Hichilema and the best he should have done was just to appear before her instead of risking to be embarrassed if a bench warrant was issued against him.
“However, in the interest of justice, I hereby order that a bench warrant returnable on August 26, 2014 at 09:00 hours be issued against him immediately,” she said.
Ever since Ms Chibesakunda’s lawyers applied that Mr Hichilema be cited for contempt for allegedly issuing a statement on a matter that is active before court, he has not availed himself to the court on the two occasions that the matter has come up for hearing.
I think this disease should just take away Sata, I can’t stand this dictator
U ar an *****. Whenever somethn of this nature happens to yo under 5, u wish the President death. Ar u God or satan now to want to take away people’s lives? Is he above the law? Maybe the ingombe ilede law yes. Come on grow up. Go back en join politics so that we see how genius u ar *****. Under will never even build a bridge with all the money he has.
This Under 5 has no respect for our courts and that is a bad sign for an aspiring candidate. Ba Sata never used to skip court sessions as an opposition leader. Who does this Under 5 think he is?
Look at Father Bwalya, despite being poor and the judge refusing to transfer his case to Lusaka, the man never missed a single Kasama court session despite the fact that he did not live there. This Under 5 is arrangant and a danger to this country
PF are trying to rig the elections in Kaoma. They know they can’t win and HH is the man standing in their way. So they want to put him behind bars so that they can rig this thing. They are also trying to equalize the absence of their ailing dictator by making sure HH is also absent. Let us cain these thugs before it is too late.
No one wishes Zondwa dead, but himself. No one was there when he fathered 80 children from as many wifes, nor helped him chain smoke and be a drunk.
Malibu yakuilombela.
We need sanity in our Judiciary, not this micky mouse kind of Judiciary am seeing now.
Rwgardless of the state they will be in (Cabbage, Vegetative, Red Lipped, Imbecily), let them all spend a minimum 10 year sentence at Mukobeko. We need to use the current crop of some appointed leaders, judiciary heads and Judges as a lesson to would be to learn and be serious when appointed into office.
We just need a Presidential by-election and take out PF. I guess everything will be back to normal.
HH obey the law. you are not above the law. learn to differentiate between being a politician and being a citizen.
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE,
To start with Sata and the PF government breached the constitution for appointing and letting Chibesakunda act as Chief Justice without being ratified by parliament.
HH was not served the purported surmons as he out of town. So he was not aware of them.
HH ‘s security is not guaranteed if he travels to Kitwe, the same place where the police failed to protect him when he was ambushed by panga wielding PF minions at the radio station. So HH is right to not to attend the hearing in Kitwe. The case happened in Lusaka, why take it to Kitwe?
We all know that this Kabimba ‘s smear campaign to prevent HH campaigning for the by elections because SATA IS DEAD and can not go out to boost PF ‘s chances of winning the elections.
If government can flout the constitution what more…
No what Kabimba tries to do, the case will not stick on HH. HH and his team are far ahead of things.
HH has nothing to fear . He can attend the court hearing if it is held in Lusaka, where the case happened. Even if he went to Kitwe and they try to arrest him, it wont work because it will just riots in Kitwe. Already Kitwe residents are in pre riot mood and only need something to spark it then hell will break loose.
We are not going to yield to Kabimbas’ scare tactics at all. HH is free to go any where he wants any time and day.
In fact he is preparing to avail himself to court and face that corrupt judge at the next hearing after all his security arrangements have been put in place.
Viva HH , Viva UPND.
The country has really gone to the dogs. How does a so called learned judge issue summons through a newspaper advert and even claim that “he must have seen it” What an !diot of a judge this Makungu is. PF should not fight political battles in the courts through compromised tribalist Judges. You would think HH is the President of Zambia whose trampling on peoples’ rights and being sued by downtrodden citizens. But no this is the ruling party and its government that is running scared of political opposition. What are bunch of losers!
Stupid interpretations of the law are meant to be disobeyed. If each and every stupid interpretation of the law was obeyed, there would be no revolutions that change governments the world over.
These PF thugs are pushing for a revolution that will erase all of them from history.
The only politicians who lead a worried life are those who know that they are doing things in a wrong way.
CORRUPT POLITICAL LEADERS ENJOY SHORT BURST OF EUPHORIA AND PROLONGED PERIODS OF CONFUSION, ANGUISH AND PARANOIA.
The SATA ,KABIMBA and the whole PF team experience what I have described above.
YOU MEAN SATA TOLD HH TO IGNORE THE COURT CALL? SATA DOESN’T EVEN KNOW ABOUT WHEN HH SHOULD BE IN COURT- HE IS BUSY CONSTRUCTING ROADS AND UNIVERSITIES. TROUBLE IS HH THINKS HE IS A SPECIAL HUMAN BEING IN ZAMBIA AND HE CAN MISS COURT.
@PETER
Don’t be daft just for sake defending the indefensible. The law states clearly that when summons are issued , they should not be advertised in papers but handed to defendants in person. If the person in question is out then the court should arrange for another day when to issue the summons instead of rushing to tramp up the charges and issue an arrest warrant.
Mmembe has on many occasions commented on court cases, why has he not been charged with contempt of court. This pure selective justice perpetrated by the insecure wimps in PF.
What ever they do the case is already null and void. HH is being advised by the best legal brains in the land.
Right even the judge who issued the arrest warrant is having sleepless nights. She is being haunted by her irresponsible…
The freemason devil worshiper cant even look his into his Lawyers eyes,what a tool
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I think HH should attend court cases and show respect four our courts, besides it is good publicity for him. I wonder why his handlers advised him to skip the court attendance. It does not set a good example for his UPND followers
One wonders why these things are coming up now. May God intervene in our great nation, may justice and righteousness prevail.
PF and Sata is the worst thing to have ever happened to Zambia. How I wait for that moment when names like PF, Kabimba, Sata, Judge Ngoma, Mwaliteta, Fred Mmembe, Mutembo Nchito, Kamba, Mulenga Sata, etc can be removed completely out of the Zambian politics.
PF has taken HH to court numerous times since coming to power.Most of these have ended in nolle prosequi.Any sane person would stop responding to these silly attempts by PF to lock HH..I am no fan of HH but right now he is attending to national duties unlike some people.So leave him alone and get rid of those silly laws.
Why not Lusaka where the issues happened but Kitwe? Iwe face reality.
It is bad law not to allow the citizenry to comment on cases before courts of law. Let freedom of Speech continue.
I think Kabimba is a Kenyan I dont think he is a Zambian….why troubling your friend like ths ???
UPND is winning Mangogo even the coming By-Elections.
If that is true then Lubinda, GBM and the B team need to rise up.We declare Psalm 91 and the blood of Jesus over Zambia.
@kadobi; you are one to say. Didn’t president Sata opt for a holiday to Israel when he was to appear in court for his defamation case in which he was the star witness? Am sure HH is just following the leader! Sata has no respect for the courts, as a matter of fact he has no respect for anyone. He can do whatever he wants, when he wants without regard for people he works for. He is an incorrigible old fart and I wish him a long life of demented bliss!
so you have accepted that Mr. H is not right. Brothers and Sisters, two wrongs will never make a right. “Lets conquer Evil through Wisdom”
The irritation of our people is going too far and becoming unbearable. We are sick of PF’s persecutions on the Paramount Chief Chitimukulu. Kabimba is even adding more salt onto our wounded souls by misusing his portofollio of Minister of Justice to order a Kitwe Judge to issue a bench warrant to arrest HH. We are also keeping a close watch on High Court Judge Catherine Makungu who has succumbed to political manipulations.
The rude fact is that the BIRTH of an animal is inevitably followed by DEATH. We have seen the birth and death of ANC, UNIP. This time around PF is wielding its last dyeing kicks.
Very soon, God willing, Zambians will judge the unprincipled Officers of the Judiciary, Police, ACC, DEC, very harshly. PF will be taught a bigger lesson in these by-elections.
When is a warrant gonna be out for arrest of Sata for missing work,dereliction of duties and receiving pay without work? This on HH is suspect.
Each time I see HH behaving like president I always think of morgan tsvangarai and odinga who were more popular than HH. sata went to presidency without mangango and your votes so chances of sata remaining in states house are still over 70%
You are a fool, where is Sata?
Sata is busy working and does not want to talk too much or unnessary global trotting like his predecessor, kamwendo munjila. It is now we have a president who sits at State House big time.
@mwimbi,sata is in state house fit and working,but unfortunately he is not productive,he can be busy but not tangible results on the well being of the nation.HH will effective,productive and timely on fixing the economy.he will assemble a team that he doesn’t owe anything but a team that will bring back demonstracy to shame his critics.
No tangible results
You are just hallucinating ……………….. some other party will form government after PF and not UPND under HH. This can happen perhaps after PF Government has done two terms or more.
Lock him and throw away the key. The chap thinks he is above the law.
Sour loss….LOL….when you loose.
You keep writing same sentence again and again… throw away the key- throw the key- that is same shty I heard from tax drivers in Lusaka.
Saulosi, be yourself once more. Ever since Sata got sick, your mind has deteriorated at an alarming pace, I even wonder if you and Sata even have a day you laugh. You so depressed.
saulosi, how many times have you prayed for HH to rot in prison but it hasn’t happened? Your hatrage for our future president is driving you crazy. Soon you will be sharing the same ward with your Mr. Sata.
“Mr Hichilema must have seen the advertisements……….”. Such a statement coming from a learned judge is worrying. Who says everyone reads the daily papers especially if one is out in the bush campaigning? The best is to serve the sermons, or whatever paper it is, on the person or his/her lawyers. I don’t think assuming the defendant saw the advert in the Daily Mail is excusable for a learned judge. I submit.
@job 13:13
Thats a brilliant take on this judicial scandal of the century. Since when did the courts start serving summons to defendants through the media. So its mandatory for every citizen to read the useless papers just in case the courts are after you.Does that not border on contempt of court as well.
This judge will go down in history as the most disgraced judge in Zambia for yielding political pressure on a non existent case.
His lawyers where there to represent him, and they gave him the message from the judge. Mind you the lawyer are not the ones who broke the law. The first time he was given some benefit of doubt. The warranty of arrest can make him a resident of kamfinsa which is what he is looking forward to.
@wanzelu & @job.
Read this below form the article and refer to your comments above.
“I am convinced that he is aware of these proceedings and was aware of them even before the matter last came up for hearing because I do not see how his advocates would come to court without their client’s instructions but with copies of the application since it has been proven that the application was in accordance with my order for substituted service advertised in the Daily Mail of 28 and 29 July, 2014,” Justice Makungu said.
So the summons were placed in form of an advertisement in newspapers? How come they were not served to him in person? Quite strange
Please cage this mabisi afro fool
The reason UPND will lose in 2016 is not just because it is a weak party on its own but also that it is led by an unpopular president (HH). In 2001 Anderson Mazoka amassed 79,000 votes in Lusaka but 10 years later in 2011 HH only managed to get 45,000 in the same province but many UPND supporters cannot read between the lines that their candidate is simply not popular. Politics is about numbers and I can assure you UPND will lose terribly in 2016.
Lol….The political fields were very different then and as such they are actually not comparable. Nice little try at “analysis”. Now lay down. You’ll hurt yourself.
Ha ha ha ha….your halenya haleshinda is just afraid he still remembers what happened to him in Ndola if this case was in Choma he wouldn’t ‘ve skipped it.
You are 100% right there. But we are mobilising his security arrangement on the copperbelt. Very soon, say by the end of week, he will avail himself to court and face that Judge.
We are not taking any chances.
Lelo Lelo Lelo ! No one is above the law.
PF seems to have run out of ideas on what to do with HH,while when your time is up it’s up indeed,feels as though PF has been in power more than MMD,I personally feel sorry for our president HE MC SATA even his own wife is now telling lies on his behalf,HH is the next Zambian president.
The current judicial system in Zambia is overzealous on court cases involving opposition leaders but completely spineless on the head of state Sata who has disregarded the law of the country right from day one of his presidency. Sata does not recognize freedom of expression (Zambians have been imprisoned at caricaturing his name), freedom of assembly has been curtailed, Chief justice is illegally in that position because Sata wants her in that job when the law does not allow. Sata has not told the nation where he is and what he is doing (absent without leave) deserted the nation. If sick as we speculate, a committee should have been set up to determine his capacity to rule. All this has been ignored and judiciary is quiet, but active on opposition leaders cases. What a shame!.
Can someone tell Sata to come out of his shell and face the people. Despite his frail condition he is able to pull the strings on the judiciary to victimise innocent people while letting criminals and plunderers go scot-free.
Ifyabupuba fye.
This boy HH with stolen money thinks he is almighty king. Well done judge Makungu. Let this naughty boy feel the weight of the law. I wonder what his supporters have seen in him. The chap is a classic clueless chimbwi no plan. If he had an iota of intelligence, he would have sensed that the so called handlers and lawyers of his are doing an under-cover coup. Having been exposed to HH’s loot, the lawyers are playing it clean to wrongly advise him so that he comes in conflict with the law and in the process they cash in while falsely sweating to defend him in court.
Who told you that UP and DOWN is above the law ! No victimization here but let the law take its course accordingly.
Just wondering if UPND will ever exist after 2016. am seeing a lot of squabbles within UPND to who takes over affairs of the Party after so many embarrassment from HH.
Worry about your dead President and the succession struggles in your PF. Will you stick around when a none Bemba Kabimba formally takes over as PF President
all the chicalas will have their day
stop harrassing the incoming presdo.
HH BEING TESTED VERY WELL THEY ARE JUST MAKING HIM AND PREPARING HIM FOR PRESIDENCY. BUT THIS TIME HE JUST NEEDS OUR PROTECTION AND SUPPORT. VIVA UPND VIVA HH AND VIVA BA COPARA.
The issue here is PF is using the corrupt judiciary to try to bar HH from the 2016 presidential elections which they are likely to lose if HH contests. So they want to arrest him, and as CONVICT he will then not be able to stand in 2016. We can see through this shit!
This is exactly what Sata meant when he said: “I have ran my race, I became Zambia’s 5th president and now I have nothing more to run for……It is up to you to fix your problems now. Even if HH wins today I will not have any problems, so if you feel you will be in problems, you deal with him right now.” Who says that…?
This is what is happening and Zambians cant see! the courts and the whole state machinery is hunting down HH shamelessly! Lets be a bit more civilised and not kill for politics, just compete on ideas!
No sacred cows pa Zed…no one is above the law
those who support pf,are they normal.Another thing i am urging my fellow Zambians the Bemba speaking to do something over the disrespectful treatment he is curently geting from pf.What i know is that the paramount chief must be protect by his or her subjects.
yaba..ba pf police..time will tell..HH is the next leader!!!
There are so many dull people blogging. HH is not above the law. He needs to respect the law whether guilty or not guilty. He is not a special being. He just wants sympathy and he thinks he can gain popularity by doing this. He is not going to get the attention some great people like H E Mr Sata got.
I have also noticed. When the police arrest a PF member, they are doing ok, but when they arrest twits like this one……silly people comment.
Kindly arrest this twit
Hakainde Hichilema should change his advisers and legal team. How does a person wanting to be president ignore the courts of law? Let me talk to Jesus, politics are annoying.
They say The Law is an Ass. But then again, no one is above the law. HH probably needs to stop being so confrontational and just deal with these matters and not use cunning, which is merely showing contempt. He can afford a good lawyer team, he needs to go along and ‘moon’ at them or something! Play the baboon and get it over with. So basically, he could end up with a criminal record eh? Meaning he can’t run for president because of that record?