Friday, March 29, 2024

Executive does not Interfere with the Judiciary – Levy

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President Levy Mwanawasa had refuted accusations that the executive was interfering with the operations of the judiciary.

President Mwanawasa said the executive did not comprise judges to pervert justice.

Dr. Mwanawasa said he has never together with his predecessor Dr. Fredrick Chiluba interfered in the operations of the judiciary which has been given autonomy.

President Mwanawasa said Judges both for the Supreme and High court, with the exception of the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice, are appointed by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

Dr. Mwanawasa said he had no say in what the JSC, which is chaired by the Chief Justice Ernest Sakala, does.

He said the JSC recommends and appoints candidates after it has approved the names that they are submitted to the Chief Justice who later submits the recommended names to the president.

The President said he only appoints names submitted to parliament for ratification of the candidates based on recommendations from the commission.

“The Chief Justice can tell you that at no time have I rejected any appointment by the commission, “he said.

He said candidates are subjected to thorough scrutiny from various organisations that include Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) and the Office of the President in case such a person has ‘cob webs’.

For Subordinate court justices, the president said they are appointed by the commission without names being submitted for his approval.

He added that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) enjoys autonomy together with the state advocates to decide on action to be taken on any case.

He said there are times when he feels that trial should commence on case but was handicap hence cannot interfere.

“ When I was practicing law, I would not handle a case for more than one year, but we have lawyers who handles cases for close to 7 years.

President Mwanawasa reiterated that his government believes in the separation of powers in the operations of the executive, parliament and judiciary.

He said his government would have been dictatorial if whatever cabinet agrees on was law.

“There are times when we had to present and withdraw the bill because we have thought other people were not involved in the process,” he added.

He stated problems of the judiciary are handled by the Chief Justice who also advises government on areas that needs to be addressed to improve the operations of the judiciary.

16 COMMENTS

  1. wait a minute. I smell a rat. whay did have to take levy to talk about pardoning Chiluba when sweaing the deputy head of the judiciary? why didnt he say it at his rally in Petauke? let me do some research. will be back.

  2. Gv. No need to divert attention from real issues iwe Chisheta. Why dont you stick to the debate?

  3. suprisingly MTENGO WA is on all the articles posted. hmmm baba you are well informed i think you are a jack of all trades and a trade of none.

  4. Levy, it is true that you do not interfere with the Judiciary when your nephews are involved. However when it is other people, it is always news even after a decade. Please practice what you preach.

  5. Why was the sokoni letter not revilled to the public! its never long ago when Mwanawasa did interfear with the Judiciary not unitl we quetioned him through our late Dr A. chanda! The bulaya issue! who instructed the DPP to discountinue the case and why is bulaya today incecerated?

    Thats what we mean by interferance! if that issue was clean why todate the letter hasn’t been shown to the pipo?
    You high judges,your cases are taken as first priority by the courts,who pays the judiciary and decides termination of contracts! It will take time for our judiciary to be total independent! Our Honourable retired Judge Kabaso chanda was pushed out of the system when, he released those inmates uncond

  6. continuation #9

    unconditionally coz of the state not been serious on their cases, during Chiluba’s tenure of office. Our Judiciary have been controlled by the executive from the on set. It could be true that; thse guys are now contempleting on pardoning him, but coz of our presure one has to be vry courageous to do that! his case is everywhere talked about in the world. Let ba Levy not think about it, if he really wants his legacy to preveil!We all know the juciary can’t bite the finger that feeds them.But they are tired of been fed by the fingers thts grown so long and dirty,so they can’t feed from it anymore! So we the pipo of zambia have come with a neil cuter to cut them off.

  7. IF Mwanawasa is right, why then did George Kunda talk about delinking the judiciary from the executive branch in the first place…double talk MMD…We need a new direction and new ideas to move Zambia forward…an alternative to MMD is needed in the next elections.

  8. Ba Levy are you trying to show us that you are very good president who strictly follow the rules of the law. I think you should learn from the past mistakes in order to build the future. You are a very cunning president.

  9. I read with interest Nevers Mumba’s sentiments echoing what I have repeatedly said regarding the need for upright leadership in Zambia. I talk about upright leadership because I am one very upright individual. When I become the President of Zambia I would ensure equitable distribution of wealth and ensure that the wealth trickled down to people at the grassroots. My major interest in becoming a President is to ensure the rule of law is upheld and rout out police brutality, corruption, tribalism (coz we’re ONE people), and nepotism. It’s disgusting to see the level of backwardness perpetrated in Zambia.

  10. Citizens, how many times did Levy award salary increases to the judiciary after the 2001 elections while the judiciary were dealing with the presidential election petition by Mazoka? If I recall, he increased their salries and improved their conditions of service so many times that the judges took 5 years to come to a conclusion favouring Levy. The judges had to drag the petition for all this time as they had turned Levy into a cash-cow. Sad that he now turns around and startd waffling that he does not control the judiciary. It is time he started to respect the truth and just keep quiet.

  11. You voted for Chuchu kayili. it would be worse with the Chitulika man who smokes bricks of cigars

  12. Forgive chuchu! he rightly points out that he has short term memory, “his cases wouldn’t last more than a year” – as his memory couldn’t stretch back that long, hence he can’t recollect what #9 is alluding to!

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