THE Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) says the Director of Public Prosecutions enjoys Constitutional discretion to decide on which cases to prosecute or discontinue.
LAZ president Musa Mwenye said yesterday that DPP Chalwe Mchenga exercised his constitutional discretion when he decided not to appeal against the acquittal of former President Chiluba.
“The DPP enjoys Constitutional protection and independence and the Constitution is very clear on that. He exercises discretion whether to appeal or not,” Mr Mwenye said when he featured on Radio Phoenix’s Let The People Talk programme.
He said even the courts were perfectly right when they ruled that the DPP cannot be compelled to appeal against Dr Chiluba’s case.
He said Mr Mchenga is perfectly within his right to refuse to step down in the wake of public pressure for him to do so and that people should respect that right.
Mr Mwenye said LAZ cannot sanction the DPP because of the Constitutional nature of his office.
“As far as LAZ is concerned, the DPP is untouchable by us because State lawyers don’t need to have practising certificates. We can’t punish the DPP because he is a Constitutional office holder and he enjoys Constitutional tenure to that extent,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chief Government Spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha dismissed Mr Mwenye’s claims that Constitution making failed because government bulldozed the process.
In an interview yesterday, Gen Shikapwasha said the government never bulldozed the process but was merely taking leadership as expected of any government.
“In any manner of constitution making, the government takes leadership and we were mandated by the people to make a new constitution. So as government, we consulted various stakeholders and others who participated in the process. They were more than those who stayed away,” Gen Shikapwasha said.
On the same programme yesterday, Mr Mwenye blamed the failure of the Constitution-making process on Government.
He alleged that the government ignored advice from key stakeholders and that there was no consensus on the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) Act and the process.
But Gen Shikapwasha said in any Constitution making process, not everyone agrees on everything but the majority takes the day.
He said as a man leading a credible and statutory institution, Mr Mwenye should not blame government because it is clear that the opposition failed the Constitution-making process.
He said government did everything possible to ensure that the country has a new Constitution but the opposition sabotaged the process.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
The DPP has discretion on which cases to prosecute or not just like which cases to appeal or no but the decision has to be judicious. This is the key factor by the DPP…… Iwe
Shikapwasha if those that participated in the constitution making process were more than those that stayed away why then did the process fail?
Were these two paper listening to the same guy? I wish we had time ourselves to listen to the actual interview ourselves than be subjected to this confusion. My advice to people outside the country is that you will never get the truth about what is going on back home. The situation is rapidly rotting away. Check this:
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=20978
This report is twisted and incoherent, and highly misrepresentative of the LAZ President. Mwenye categorically stated the position of LAZ for Mchenga to resign has not changed.
Selective journalism at its best.
Ahhh please I listened to the Laz President he made mention of the consitutional office of the DDP and the tenure he enjoys but he also said if the grounds for his removable were tabled then he he couldbe removed the other was for him to resign..he also spoke to some length on why Laz wanted the State to appeal this was so there was precedence on how to handle a matter involving a former head of state and not to let the matter die in a subordinate court……he at not time said Muchenga is untouchable or that he should go….
Oh my God! These daily mail and LT Reporters are crooks! I listened to the Program. Surely how can they pick out this issue and over-blow it? The man never said DPP is untouchable!!!!!! These are Liars really!!!!!!!!
ba pf, you have no moral right to comment on the constitution, corruption, dpp etc until you put your own house in order. (i) democracy – pf must first show that it is democratic by holding internal elections. as things stand now mr sata is a dictator and unlike rb, has not changed from his unipist wamuyaya days, so on what basis can pf discuss issues of national democracy including the non.sensical 50%+1? (ii) corruption and brown envelopes – the headlines in the post archives have indicted the pf leader. pf and the post have not denied or clarified whether the man has now changed, but they cannot do that because he has not changed at all.
(iii) “90 days theorem”- pf and everybody else know that no one on earth can carry out the “90 days theorem”. deception of voters in this manner amounts to attempted theft of votes and it is the highest form of corruption, but perhaps more important is the fact that people who attempt to get power in this manner will not hesitate to lay their sticky fingers on the national treasury, otherwise what is the motive for such desperation? (iv) deception=lies=theft=corruption=moral bankruptcy. pf cadres, if you have any iota of morality left in you, please deny these issues and state whether your leadership is any cleaner now than it was before the post and mmembe lost their moral high ground and became willing accomplices to deception. no insults please (@1, chisunde sunde keep away).
We will round them up soon,i mean all thieves and those that are stealing presently
Ba Dailymail mwampapusha! Muliba bufi bafiquala mwaba ama to le
@9, the lies designed and manufactured by the post (and pf) are much more serious. when you are pf, you are always required to accuse others of telling lies in order to hide or mask the party’s daily lies and deception. pf leadership seems to believe that the bigger the lies and the sweeter the deception, the more likely that people will believe it. agony is that it is taken straight from hitler’s holocaust doctrine.
i haven’t seen any contradiction between what laz said and what has been reported by daily mail. of course laz president may have stated his reasons why they would want mchenga to resign or even to appeal and this opinion was not directly reported by the mail, reason could be space or that is what the reporter captured as most important item, but that does not amount to lies, does it? those who want to know the definition of lies need look no further, the closest and simplest example is the pf”s 90 days development claim.
This appeal crap would have been a waste of tax payers’ money and just make the pockets of some lawyers fat – the judgment at the end of it would have remained unchanged. I also wanted the appeal but looking at it again, this was going to be a worthless exercise.