Chief Justice Irene Mambilima says the amended Zambian Constitution creates the necessary framework to secure or guarantee the functional and financial independence of the judiciary.
Justice Mambilima said while a legal and institutional framework to regulate the conduct and performance of judges and magistrates do exist in the country, each individual judge and magistrate must be accountable for his or her conduct and performance.
Officiating today at the 7th annual law conference being held at Avani Victorial Falls Resort Hotel in Livingstone, Justice Mambilima said the individual judge or magistrate should not report late for work or adjourn cases unnecessarily.
She said no judge or magistrate should tolerate or be receptive to improper influence, inducements, pressure, threats, or interference, whether direct or indirect because each of these vices serves to subvert or negate the independence, integrity and accountability which are so critical to the role of a judge or magistrate.
“Those of us who are privileged to manage the judiciary must be accountable for its performance as an institution. Our expectation as an institution is that, as appropriately intended by the framers of the amended constitution, the judiciary must practically enjoy the ability to exercise control over its own funds and apply these funds in accordance with its own priorities for the better administration of justice,” Justice Mambilima said.
She mentioned that a lot of planning goes into an efficient justice delivery system adding that the judiciary is best left to direct such planning and to set its priorities.
The people expect the judiciary to discharge its functions to the best possible standard adding that the judiciary also believe that nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of its desire to fulfill the expectations of the people from whom it derive its authority.
And in her welcoming remarks at the event, Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) President Linda Kasonde said lawyers in the 21st century need to be courageous, innovative, informed and prepared to make sacrifices.
Ms. Kasonde said the judiciary has a duty to serve the people of Zambia diligently by upholding the law regardless of the personalities or subject matter involved.
“We hold this conference under the theme “Power, Privilege and the Pursuit of Justice: Legal Challenges in Precarious Times”. This a very relevant theme at a time when the country is going through challenging times both economically and politically,” Ms. Kasonde said.
Ms. Kasonde expressed hope that by the end of the conference, meaningful resolutions will be arrived at in order to help in addressing some of the developmental and rule of law challenges the country face whilst at the same time enhancing legal knowledge and skills.
Mwamonekeni mukwai?
That individual magistrate handling PF vs Nevers Mumba case.
IRON LADY BANONO BENGACHILA IFYO UBOMBA.
“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
Loud and clear. But flash out chaps like justice of the belly deliverer Judge Mwiinde Siavwapa.
Ireen Mambilima, the most useless Chief Justice in the history of Zambia…
We have somehow been dissapointed with the general performance of the Zambian judicial system. Instead of protecting the public, it appears the system is only protecting one individual
Madame Chief Justice look at your Resident Magistrate David Simusamba..he does not turn up without giving a reason at Nevers appeal …this is unprofessional, why not just turn up and throw out his appeal. This is common with so many cases where these Magistrates do not turn up.
I think David is also attending that conference…
But that should have been communicated as well. As a matter of fact, if his attending that conference ,those dates of the conference were known a long time ago. Why did he set that date for the ruling then?? David needs discipline!
Ba Simusamba thinks balifika, ni ba CJ pa lwabo.
Kwati Judge Mwiinde Siavwapa
The most corrupt judge.
CJ must rise to the statue of her job. You have been too absent Madam!
Just why was Simusamba absent?
To punish Nevas.
HaGay!!! Thank you for serving the nation Your Honour! They will never be satisfied! All the need is the office they will never get!
Remember, Nevers is responsible for his conduct just as HH is!
So u are happy the man is in jail, women of nowadays awe sure so evil like Judas
What is the Role of CJ if she can’t enforce discipline and Professionalism in the Judiciary? A case in point is Magistrate Simusamba’s behavior today in Court in the case of Dr Nevers Mumba. This is a trivial case where the Magistrate under the direction of the Executive, Simusamba is persecuting Dr Nevers Mumba thru Prosecution. A Magistrate sets a date to consider a Bail Application on a Trivial case fails to pitch up in Court and offers no apology to keep Dr Mumba in Jail for another night. This is injustice of the highest order. The CJ should not condone such behavior and injustice in our Courts. The Zambian Judiciary has been captured by Lungu and there is no longer any Respect for our Constitution,Rule of law,Good Governance and Human Rights. CJ Mambilima has allowed this break…
The CJ is not above board. She has to play by the book, I guess you call it the Constitution.
NSM was sentenced. The judge is human too. Have you always been at the dinner table all your miserable time on earth? Have you always attended a funeral you have always been wanted to attend? Okay don’t you ever fall sick? So sh!t happens. I guess you should have a path in the judges’ lives. Ask Siavwapa. Sick puppy; Cry babies.
@Thorn in the $&%& – one thing about you dingbats is that you don’t use critical thinking…only when your dear cousin is falsely accused of something and they have to appeal, the magistrate don’t turn up for no reason will it sink in…he was doing this with that last high profile case last year now imagine if you are an ordinary Joe Public from Chawama always being transported to and from remand prison because the magistrate is a no show.
You cruel judges who love sending people to custodial sentences in our dirty prisons when the option for community service is available will most certainly be judged by God himself. You chaps will feel the hot and cold flame of Shoel/ Hades (Hell).
No judge is above God, you chaps are even smaller and more useless than invisible tiny germs on the finger tips of the Almighty! May God judge you chaps accordingly!
While we are on this earth, we have to do whatever is necessary to keep criminals at bay humanly. We have to administer justice humanly like Herold, Solomon and Pirate while we move steadily to the ultimate divine judgement. Some judgement will be porous like the one delivered by Judge Mwiinde Siavwapa. So porous that you can vividly see thick see-through miscarriage of justice holes.
Before 2015 Presidential election I adored madam Mambilima. After elections I doubted her as a woman of excellency. After 2016 general and Presidential elections I concluded she was not anywhere near fairness, impartial and democratic. The has destroyed the judiciary. Maybe the cataract called Wanyoko ni Wanyoko blinded her to the hard facts that somebody stole an election. Shame to CJ Mambilima.
How dare you discredit her honor her woman of integrity? Because she upheld the people’s choice which was to vehemently deny the satanist and his cohorts a chance at plot ONE?
Chief Justice is still a woman of integrity@ 11. Her integrity in tandem with her conscience resolved not to swear in an individual as Zambian republican president on account of not only questionable vote results outcome but results that were lodged in her court for adjudication. Political expedience on the part of people without regard to the rule of law ignored the authority of the office of C J which she occupies and went a head to be sworn in by a clerk to declare the undeclared vote results as legitimate without subjecting it to the due process of the law. I salute madam Mambilima as one of the few lawyers remaining with integrity in Zambia.
The CJ is not above board. She has to play by the book, I guess you call it the Constitution.
NSM was sentenced. The judge is human too. Have you always been at the dinner table all your miserable time on earth? Have you always attended a funeral you have always been wanted to attend? Okay don’t you ever fall sick? So sh!t happens. I guess you should have a path in the judges’ lives. Ask Siavwapa. Sick puppy; Cry babies.
Can she explain why she did not swear in tthe President? We hear she was threatened to attend and swear him at gun point!
Stop listening to rumors. Get the facts, Get knowledge, Get understanding.
Who signed the Swearing in certificate? Swearing in is not the reading of the certificate, but the signing of it.
Just like at many functions where the President confers honours on people, an administrator or MC reads out the achievement and the President simply pins the badge of honour on the individual.
Does that mean the President did not confer? Shame on UPND and its desire to mislead the public.
This lack of understanding how governance works is what makes people doubt their ability to lead, hence the under five tag….
She is very useless CJ Zambia has ever known;
Immediately this lady got that position she simply went dead. I wonder why! She has really disappointed a lot of people who thought she was an iron lady. She is no longer clear as when she did that Free & Fair declaration at ECZ.
You preside over a political and corrupt justices system and you want to insult our intelligence. The justice system we saw under Mwanawasa cannot be compared to what we are subjected to today. There is justice for the rich and injustice for the poor, justice for the politically connected to the PF and injustice for the opposition. Posterity madam will judge you harshly, the seeds that you have sown will surely bare fruits. You will not be in that seat forever , a time of reckoning is but surely coming.Linda Kasonde can make a better chief justice than what we have now.
Let us remind Nevers to stop LYING. We should not condemn Simusamba as if he is the one who asked him to break the law. If you had to choose between attending to a LIER and attending the AGM , What would you choose?
What is a LIER?
The conference was for members of the Law Association of Zambia and magistrate Simusamba is not a member of LAZ. The Chief Justice was merely invited to officiate. He fixed the hearing date himself and it must have been convenient to him.
Under her watch the judiciary lost credibility and trust. Has she just woke up from deep slumber to realise how corrupt and compromised the judiciary has become? Even in her personal capacity, she has lost the shine associated with her office. She must redeem herself and instil some honour in the justice system. What has happened in her ranks is a reflection of her leadership.
Comment:only her family can believe deireen mambilima what she says.she is meaning the opposite of this issue.
LAZ or whatever body needs to discipline Simusamba. The man is too full of himself
The biggest challenge for our Chief Justice is to come to terms with the states of minds that have encroached on the calibre of some practicing Lawyers, Magistrates as well High Court & Constitutional Judges. Most members of this noble profession have mutated into scavengers of dirty money to build mansions at the exclusion of their professional calling in the service of genuine justice in Zambia. Curiously this cancer is known to exist in Ghana where a Judge has been reported to be linked to Mmembe’s so-called Socialist Party with hidden capitalist goals. Unza, UNILUS, Cavendish & Zambia Open University must review curricula in Schools of Law to include History of mankind to offset Lawyers’ greed for money and political inclinations.
A three-judge panel of High Court judges consisting of Mwiinde Siavwapa, Chalwe Mchenga and Nicola-Sharpe-Phiri freed Austin Liatto when he appealed his conviction despite overwhelming evidence adduced by the ACC. They found two million buried at his farm and the magistrate who put him on his defence wanted an explanation of how he had come by that kind of money and why he buried it despite having a bank account. Liatto opted for silence in court and the magistrate convicted him. The three judges at High Court level overturned this judgement. It is the Supreme Court bench of three judges that restored the surbodinate court’s judgement although Richard Sakala’s Daily Nation wants the world to believe that it was only one judge who sat in the Supreme Court. I have read the judgement and I…
…. I have read the Supreme Court judgement on the Judiciary website and found that in fact it was a panel of three judges that heard and decided the matter. That is when I stopped buying Sakala’s Daily Nation. Sakala was reporting that only one judge heard the appeal.