Court dismisses case of Commission of Inquiry members demanding K1.3 million each

THE Lusaka High Court has thrown out a matter in which 10 former members of the Mongu Riots Commission of Inquiry petitioned the State demanding payments of K1, 300,000 to each member.

The money according to the former commissioners was for their sitting and other allowances.

Judge Mungeni Mulenga dismissed the petition by Henry Chilufya Chanda and nine others for failure by both parties to appear in court.

Mr Chanda who is a lawyer by profession was on behalf of others, seeking an order directing the attorney general to pay each petitioner the sum of K1, 300,000 which would carry the current Bank of Zambia interest rate from the date of petition to the actual date of payment.

He was further seeking an order directing the Government to pay K5,000 as costs of and occasioned by the proceedings.

Mr Chanda had contended that the situation of non payment of their money had caused them psychological torture.

He had stated that failure by Government to pay them their entitlement amounted to the violation of their Constitutional rights which was against Article 16 of the Constitution.

Mr Chanda had stated that efforts to persuade Government to settle their allowances proved futile.

The court however sent out notices inviting both parties to attend court so that their matter could be heard but none appeared.

This prompted Ms Justice Mulenga to dismiss the petition for want of prosecution.

“I accordingly, hereby dismiss this matter for want of prosecution, forth with ” Ms Justice Mulenga said.

Ms Justice Mulenga had earlier stroke off the matter from the active cause list after both the petitioners and State did not appear but ?gave them the liberty to restore it within 21 days but they did not do so.

The Mongu riot Commission of Inquiry was set up by President Michael Sata on October 11, 2011, to inquire into various issues of the Mongu riots of January 14, 2014.