The application was lodged following the High Court’s decision to nullify her seat due to electoral malpractices.
Constitutional Court Judge Enock Mulembe in his ruling said he did not see any need to entertain the application for a stay because a seat was not vacant until the court made a final determination.
He said he found the application for a stay irrelevant since the law, as per constitutional provisions, had stated that the seat only becomes vacant after the final determination of the Constitutional Court.
“My considered view is that I see no need to entertain this application for stay any further when, by operation of law and in terms of the Constitution, it is clear when the seat becomes vacant,” Justice Mulembe said.
Mr Justice Mulembe further urged the parties to focus on preparing for the hearing of the appeal so that the court could have the opportunity to bring the matter to a final determination.
“Considering this application has raised important constitutional issues of a public interest nature, I order that each party bears their own cost.
“For the foregoing reasons, the application for stay of execution of judgment pending appeal is accordingly dismissed,” he said.
Justice Mulembe noted that Article 72(2) of the Constitution addressed instances when the office of an MP became vacant or ceased to be one, hence his decision to dismiss Ms Mwanakatwe’s application as her appeal was not yet determined.
Can someone put this is layman terms. A lot of us LT readers need to be demystified.
It simply means Mwanakatwe did not have to apply for a stay because she has already appealed to the Constitutional Court the nullification of her seat by the High Court. Thus she remains MP and the Lusaka Central seat is not vacant. The Concourt will later deliver judgement on her appeal. In the meantime, the Concourt wants her to concentrate on the appeal she made. The stay was a waste of time.
The honorable thing to do is to leave the ministerial position.
It means Mwanakatwe remains MP until the appeal case is decided or disposed of. As it is, the case is still active in the ConCourt because she has appealed against the High Court ruling that nullified her election. The judge has ruled that Mwanakatwe remains MP pending the determination of the main appeal case, so there was no need for her to apply for a stay in the first place.
So she was waffling with applications of stay? kikikiki
If the learned judge knew that the stay was irrelevant, why waste more time on it by making a ruling? Shouldn’t he and others concerned in the concourt been focusing on the main case of appeal then and stop confusing us?
In simple and plain language, Judge MULEMBE is merely saying Mwanakatwe’s appeal has to be determined by the constitutional court. That is when it will be known whether her seat will be vacant or not. Otherwise, she continues to serve as minister for as long as she has appealed the High court decision of Mwiinde Siavwapa to nullify her election and the constitutional court has to determine the outcome of her appeal.
This Court has made itself so irrelevant and useless, especially that only one out of the 5 Judges qualifies for the job, we expect a lot of diahorrea and vomits from the ill qualified so called judges from this Court and it is a deliberate move by Lungu to put ill qualified and hero worshipper judges there for his selfish needs. But one day, things will change and history will repeat itself.
THIS COURT IS JUST A CIRCUS AND A TOTAL WASTE OF TAX PAYER MONEY!!! ALL THEY HAVE DONE SO FAR IS DENY JUSTICE BY DELAYING JUSTICE. WHAT A USELESS STRUCTURE. WHAT GENIUSES CAME UP WITH SUCH MEDIOCRITY? WHAT A USELESS WASTE OF TIME. ANYWAY LIFE GOES ON!!!
MORE LIKE “CIRCUS COURT” ATI CONSTITUTIONAL COURT! SERIOUSLY?!!!
So who will nullify the MP position? And when?
This means that Mwanakatwe remains MP and minister until the matter is concluded by the courts of law.
If you have a valid bus ticket from Lusaka to Ndola, there is no need to buy another ticket in kabwe while you still have the original ticket which remains valid.
Unless after checking your ticket in Ndola, it is found to be invalid, enjoy you journey and save your money. This is what the judge said in simple terms.
Why are these two silly girls attemting to hold onto seats as if they cannot succeed elsewhere? Nipamani? Move on and let the country move on you two. I am sick of you and Edgar don’t need you no more. The sooner you realised the better.
So she is equally one ignorant MP/Minister on legislation for offices they envy to occupy
Could the two not step aside to allow a fair legal process or greed has taken the better of them?
This truly shows the independence of our courts under the leadership of PF. These are good precedents being set.
Next time we won’t have political cadreism and nonsense. Next up, the ministers must repay to us what they used while in office illegally.
Kudos to President Edgar Lungu, my president the Lawyer.
Mr Kudos 2016 Top 5 Bloggers on LT. Thank you for your votes
Your “…president the Lawyer…” and CONVICTED embezzler
Kikiki she was busy comissioning projects the other day. We wonder in what capacity. If lungu can entertain people of questionable integrity to be ministers then we wonder how much these thugs have stolen so far. Vote nez as best blogger
@NEZ the constitution says she remains MP until the matter is dealt with by the constitutional court where she has appealed so the president is right to keep her as minister until the court hears the appeal as simple as that. So what are you waffling about? Very dull blogger!!
@NEZ is really as dull as his party UP and Down. Please, read Judge Mulembe’s guidance on the matter to understand that what he is saying is that for as long as Mwanakatwe appealed to the constitutional court Mwiinde Siavwapa’s nullification of her election, there is no need for Mwanakatwe to demand for a stay of execution of Siavwapa’s judgment. For the time being, there is no need for Mwanakatwe to lose sleep as her seat has not been declared vacant and she remains Minister. May be someone should translate this in Tonga for NEZ to understand such simple English.
@ zedoc
Who is the dull one, 5tupid cow who filed application or NEZ?
@3.3, I think both (the 5tupid cow and @NEZ) can fall into the dull category, but @NEZ’s dullness, as ever, is at a far superior level! Everybody knows who the ‘5tupid cow who filed’ is…
As for Dudu, she was just ill advised by her lawyers…
Low life poorly dressed dundumwezi educated polygamist blogging just to be seen. @nez
Ethics and morals demand that when a leader is under probe, they should step down from their position to allow for a free and fair investigation and passage of justice. This is about morals and ethics and not just what the constitution says. Margret knows this very well because she lived in the UK for many years where they don’t even have a written constitution but follow what is morally right. The PF top leadership is still in power even after losing a crucial referendum in January. The top leader should have resigned and handed over to new leadership. They campaigned for a YES vote but the NO prevailed. Enough reason to step aside. Margret and Luo are still occupying ministerial posts when their election as mps has been challenged. That’s Zambian politics, MONEY and POWER first then…
wiseone 3.6 has said exactly what i was going to say. It might not be illegal for her to be minister but it just reflects on lungu’s poor leadership. If one of my employees is under probe for mismanagement, it follows that i suspend them during that time inorder for investigations to be carried out in an impartial environment. It also follows that lungu who is supposedly a lawyer should have requested that she temporarily steps down while her case is decided. SO chovix and fellow dullards there is no sense in what you are supporting. Grow up
NEZ bitterness is eating up your intelligence. Surely do you need a loyer to interpret the judgement? The judge said she remain MP until the final determination.
general 3.8 there is not bitterness in me. Again you have failed to grasp a simple point made by wiseone and myself. We are simply saying that there isnt any moral high ground under lungu’s government. Be realistic for once. If you were a director of a company and one of the highest courts of the land found your manager wanting on a case of theft of your company’s resources, would you let them continue managing affairs just because they had appealled to a higher court and the decision of that desperate appeal was pending? DO you see where am coming from? this is a good test of lungu’s leadership. If the lady is very innoccent why is she desperate to apply for stay ?
She should have known this already this is the problem when you have lawyer cadres advising you like KBF….she was already told the same thing by the high court judge and it made total …if not legal….but logical sense.
Obviously she didn’t read the law, or if she did, it was beyond her comprehension!
In both cases someone that is charged to make the Laws of Zambia should have been far more diligent or asked her lawyers for an interpretation.
The fact that she does not even understand the law is enough to show she is not law making material.
So how can she be a competent member of Parliament?
Maragaret Mwanakatwe – the courts have now decided so Go and take your Racism and Stu.pidity with you!! We have had enough of that Rupiah Banda sh.it with you grandie RB fuc.ker! Just Leave that ministerial job; Go Away; Disappear you Evil Rat Eating Ar.sewhore!!
50 ml of doom pesticide bottles available at K1 each, very potent just one spoon and you are gone!
@Barabas: You miserable pie.ce of sh.it! Take that, put some of it in your ar.se and your grandmother’s stae puss.ey!
Sh.it mongrels you and your smelly mother surely are!
Ukafwa ne chikonko stanyo…….ko epowambile utukanafye wembuliwe ne chisungu tawaishiba mwanakatwe is staying go hang!
@sandonio:
Suck my di.ck – you DULL thick headed Pr.ik!
Just and GO and Die – ulefwaya kwa kufwila kanshi! Ar.sewhore!
@Pea-brain, such an open sewer…
Kwena ifikopo mu Zambia fingi! The Concourt has not ruled that Mwanakatwe should go but rather that there was no reason for the appellant (Mwanakatwe ) to seek for a stay of execution as legally she is supposed to hold her office of MP until the Concourt decide otherwise; which the court has not yet done. So she is still MP for Lusaka Central until and unless the Concourt upholds the decision of the High court to nullify her election. I believe this in now clear.
These two Ministers whose seats were declared null should take the chill pill, take leave from official duty – seeing as the appointing authority is too lazy to act – and wait until all matters around their cases are determined. Is it so difficult to do mwe bantu? I feel so embarrassed when I have to figure out what thought processes some people engage in the face of brazen shame!
Justice Mulembe’s opinion is that both Luo and Mwanakatwe remain MPs and Ministers until Concourt hears their Appeal and determine it. This means the Appeal can be heard at the pleasure of Concourt which in turn is controlled by ECL. Why can’t Concourt seat as a full bench and make an Urgent Ruling on this issue? What became of the Application by HH & GBM to seek Concourt’s interpretation on the need for President Elect to resign and allow the Speaker of Parliament to act as President of Zambia while the Petition is being heard? Concourt as a full bench needs to show leadership on these emotive issues. Concourt messed up on the Presidential Petition and now is messing up the MPs Petitions. Concourt with its “Night Judges” needs to be disbanded. Election Petitions should be dealt with…
I think you don’t understand Law and I will simplify for you. Justice Mulembe’s judgement simply says the 2 Ministers were NOT properly elected UNTIL the Concourt decides their appeals. This means they cannot sit in Parliament and also cannot hold those ministerial positions.
MOST importantly, the 2 seats have NOT been declared vacant AND this means NO BYE-ELECTION can be declared by the speaker for those 2 seats.
Do you now get it fella – Night school could still help.
Can lungu now grow a pube and dismiss this woman
“…Can lungu now grow a pube and dismiss this woman…” (sic)
What has happened NOW that HE should fire her???
Why are you such a pillock, failing even to understand simple things…
@NEZ “Can lungu now grow a pube and dismiss this woman” How can he do that when she is sucking his filthy STD dick?
Instead of keeping People guesing why doesn’t the govt thru the AG’s Office issue a Statement on the Procedures to be followed on handling these Petitions? These 2 Petitions are now b4 the useless Concourt and when are the rest of MP Petition Judgments going to be released? When ECL saw Luo and Mwanakatwe being disqualified as MPs he directed that all Petition Judgments by the High Court Judges be suspended. ECL interfered with and manipulated the Presidential Petition to his advantage and now he is doing the same with MP Petitions. ECL has caused so much confusion. First he manipulated the Constitution and created so many Lacunas and he is now manipulating all the Courts. Poor Justice Chitabo’s image has been tainted and he now stands accused of refusing to Hear the Petition. This is…
The article is more confusing . .the writer has just gone and copied everything; without asking a lawyer on what this actually means.
@ Jay jay
Why rely so much on lawyers for something that is so crystal clear? No wonder you let lawyers milk you dry by continuing to believe only they alone understand what judges say in court.
I would rather go to an accountant or lawyer for advice to save money and jail term…nothing is crystal clear here.
Jay gay is an as-hole what will he understand.
” Constitutional court judge Enock Mulembe in his ruling said he did not see any need to entertain the application for a stay of execution because a seat was not vacant until the court made a final determination.” In other words, for those who have been confused by the plain language of judge Mulembe expressed in the subjunctive ( a form of a verb that refer to actions which are possibilities rather than facts: “a seat was not vacant until the court made a final determination” ) he is saying Mwanakatwe’s seat is not vacant because the constitutional court has yet to make a final determination on her appeal. Therefore, she remains minister by virtue of her seat not yet having been declared vacant by the constitutional court in view of her appeal before the constitutional against…
Comment:Simple and straight forward………leave the office and contest on the by elections
If Justice Mulembe is correct then why is there a clause in the Electoral Act providing for a “stay of execution of an Election Petition”? The Concourt full Bench should provide guidelines on these Petitions. The biggest culprit in all this is the AG as chief legal Adviser to the govt. The problem with the AG is that he is no longer doing his Professional Job of advising govt. He is now a personal legal adviser to ECL and thats why he Is now busy manipulating the Courts to block the UPND Petition which should be a PF and not a GRZ issue. The AG approved the draft Constitution even though its full of Lacunas. In a normal Constitutional Democracy the govt should have issued a Statement on the Ministers who lost their MP Petitions as soon as the High Court started releasing Petition…
Walasa mune @Mundia….it’s disgraceful to even think that these two women( Luo and Mwanakatwe) can continue serving the Zambian people in this manner. Where is the President on this?
Judge Mulembe said that he does not see the need yo entrrtain a stay of execution because “a seat is not vacant until the Concourt determines the petition.”
What can be more than that you UPNDonkeys? I told you the same a week ago. You mean to tell us that we should reduce your status to less tgan donkey now? Please suggest the lesser animal that you would like to be, snails maybe?
Or a GMO hybrid, UPNDonkey-Snail?
PF donkeys have taken there madness to court. you see God is whipping your asses, nothing is going well to your side becoz u ar thieves
Thank you
@16 The Miz, try again, donkeys are only found in UPNDonkeys. Now we even have cross breed called Snail-donkeys.
These things just irritate me! But continue irritating, sure to sink yourselves to more losses the more people you irritate. Even Ackson Sejani must be disgusted with his own creation. Hihi hiho hiho hiho hiho….kikikiki
Article 72(2) (h) “The office of Member of Parliament becomes vacant if
the member— is disqualified as a result of a decision of the CONSTITUTIONAL COURT.” So the decision of a high court judge is not enough to declare an mp’s seat if he or she has appealed to Concourt. In short, Mwanakatwe legitimately remains mp and cabinet minister. If you are not happy with that, go and amend the constitution, SIMPLE
meant “to declare an mp’s seat vacant”
We will never have faith in the Concourt. The Concourt Judges are at the beck and call of ECL and his minions. These guys give justice an ugly face.
But the court has said that Mwanakatwe can Continue minister.
In short because the stay does not affect her being minister why even grant it.
I believe the judge is not being honest on this issue, the high court made a ruling that she was not dully elected, what it means is that the judgment is in force until another judgment is made to overturn the previous one. in simple term she is not an MP going by the judgment from the high court.
Another pillock surfaces…!
The high court Judge Siavwapa made a similar ruling after nullifying her election, but she went ahead to appeal? Surely didn’t the lawyers and herself understand Siavwapa’s ruling when he refused to grant the stay on the same basis as this other judge has done? Are we serious to have such people as law makers in parliament?
I am equally confused on this….why why why do we have such leaders in Zambia….Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Mozambique are doing much better than us in terms of governance. Why don’t we follow suit or even be above all of them. Why is it so hard in Zambia to do anything positive for the nation. Why is corruption applauded and entertained? I cannot even mention South Africa which is to Africa, an advanced nation.
Lungu ought to be very careful with this constitution that he enacted and judges he appointed! All this confusion could lead to a judge dismissing him and he could be in “mwamoneni nomba” like his friend Yahya Jamme of The Gambia! After all that fanfare and noises about the new constitution only to end up with such an ambiguous piece of sh.it, bukuba mwa naha bu tulile sikala!
chrispin – I do not like to have Mwanakatwe as MP especially after hearing the evidence. However let the truth remain true even if you don’t like something. When there is an appeal the status quo remains the same. Meaning the situation is as it was before the ruling and the judge is right. So don’t condemn him.
@21 Chrispin, so then you have chosen to confirm my new term for slow thinking UPNDonkeys, i.e. Snail-donkeys?
Where is Stephen Katuka? Come and rescue your brethren
The UPNDonkeys have just run out of ideas and are now on the loose. They can no longer put up a coherent comment but they still find it necessary to say something on behalf of HH, no matter how silly or donkish ot may be. Please Katuka come to their aid soon.
@23 Ngombala, look here UPNDonkeys, it is not everything that is in dispute. For example, that thing on your face which you use for breathing is called “nose” in English. Can you argue with that? Of course you can argue if I called it an “ugly nose” for then the “ugly” bit of the description is my personal opinion..
I wonder wat type of lawyers we have in Zambia. From misleading HH and GBM on presidential petetion to misleading and misguiding Madam Mwanakatwe. At law, wen an appeal is filed, it invalidates th earlier judgement and everything else remains th same. Meaning wen u appeal, u nid not file stay of execution. Only th other part can file an injunction to restrain you frm continuing to th perform such duties related to your position as it may give you (th appelant) an advantage. Pliz lawyers advise yo clients appropriatly. I am simply a novice at law but understands law better than some of these lawyers.
I do not know why Zambians and other interest groups have now been categorized as either PF or UPND. Is this what it has come to? I sincerely hope this is just in the minds of some bloggers and not all the people reading and contributing on LT and other sites where this notion is apparent. It makes disgusting reading.
The dull judge means Mwanakatwe is still MP and no need for her to apply for a stay of execution. She means the high court judgement is useless, irrelevant and a waste of time. Only the concourt matters.
So why take the Parliamentary petitions to the high court. She should have ruled that she is no longer MP until or unless the concourt rules otherwise. Mwanakatwe and her LAWYERS know better than the useless judge.
@27 Terrible,
It’s sad the extent to which most Zambians like you are wholly bereft of the ability to reason not only coherently but above all intellectually. It was Lungu who enacted this constitution and in turn also appointed his own constitutional court judges. Now tell me, how could Lungu’s own ruling party MP be oblivious to the fact that a stay of execution is not needed after the nullification of a result as the status core persists until the constitutional court makes a ruling? Only god damn gutless Stu.pid idi.otic party cadres like you can stomach such intellectual stupi.dity and deem it inspirational. These are stinking toilet political acrobatics and if they work Kumawa then too sad for you fools.
Judge well done let her go away.
I honestly think stup.idity once wedded to tribal bigotry is worse than AIDS. Just watch the way Chagwa was chewing that mango fruit directly off the street the other day and how people here, especially baKumawa, will swear for them he is a “common man”. So no problem. Next time he defacates himself in public, they will claim our ancestors, Neanderthal fimo fimo did the same so Lungu is just revisiting the roots!
This is issue is very simple to understand. Mrs Mwanakatwe why did you go to lodge an application when you had appealed. When a person appeals he or she become innocent again until proved guilt by the higher court. So as of now you are an MP and Minister and continue commissioning works in various sectors.
LAZ and linda kasonde during her press conference said the seat cannot be annulled if the affected mp obtained a stay of execution. So even the LAZ president does not understand the constitution
On moral grounds Lungu should by now have suspended the minister until this issue is concluded by the concourt…. I see obstruction and interference of justice since this dimwit is still in power …
Let us deal away with the High court in parliamentary petitions if the rulings dont carry any effect. They are a waste of time and money.
I enjoyed the stories of 2016 with all their convulated logic or lack thereof, bad grammar ,irrelevance, factually decadent , diabolically persecussionistic indictments but above all the high entertainment value of the mostly Crime of Passion stories. We learnt less and less about our political and economic plight yet more and more about our inability to govern . The Lorena Bobit style stories , men being butchered by wives and girlfriends , Defilement cases( ouch) etc. We can only hope that next year brings true journalism with material substance. Happy 2017 !
I said it all but UPND guys couldn’t listen since it is their custom to argue
Joseph, Judges from High Count and Concourt are one and the same, what the judge means is that since Mrs. Mwanakatwe has appealed her case to be head again she is deemed to be innocent until the appeal is dealt with so there was no need to apply for a stay. She was supposed to apply for a stay before an appeal but since the appeal has already been lodged hence to do away with the stay. As for Ms. Kasonde the LAZ president everyone knows where her loyalty belongs.
Vote NEZ as the dullest blogger
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Kiki ukose
40.1 NEZ is not you and your fellow fimofimo who should do that?