AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS OF ZAMBIA

MR. MUTEMBO NCHITO

Dear Mr. Nchito,

I write to you as international counsel to His Excellency former President Rupiah Banda regarding serious and urgent concerns over your conduct as Director of Public Prosecutions over the past year.

As you are well aware, His Excellency and his family have been ruthlessly targeted by the Zambian government and investigative wings under your direction in a systematic campaign of politically motivated calumny and defamation with little parallel in Zambian history.

For almost 16 months, the state-controlled media and politically compromised media such as The Post have published a vast array of patently false accusations against the distinguished former head of state and his family, ranging from the disappearance of gold, to trumped up conspiracies of oil contracts, to total non-crimes such as campaign fundraising. The fact that these allegations turn up as sensationalist headlines in the media only to disappear and be forgotten speaks volumes about their fundamental lack of substance. After 16 months of this attack campaign, there has not been one single formal charge or even a real investigation. Worse still, after 16 months, we have not been informed of what, exactly, if any, alleged offence took place.

The purpose of these trials-by-headline is to damage reputation in place of any sort of procedural exercise of the law based upon the presumption of innocence. It is clear that you, Sir, and your former business partner Fred M’membe of the Post Newspaper, are in charge of overseeing a civil conspiracy to defame a respected elder statesman.

Over the last number of days, myself and many others have received calls from individuals who have been brought into some kind of desperate dragnet in an attempt by the investigative wings to come up with some form of credible charge against the former President.

Most recently, the former President was subjected to an extraordinary and illegal request to attend before the Joint Investigative Team to allegedly answer in respect to charges that were, yet again, unspecified. In furtherance of your civil conspiracy to harm the reputation of President Banda, you provided newspapers, including the Post, with this private and confidential correspondence prior to even these requests reaching the hands of my client.

Now sir, let us publicly review some facts. Along with Mr. M’membe, you are known co-defendants in a civil trial where you have been found to owe more than $3 million U.S. dollars to the Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ). Your professional misconduct in that case earned the discredit of the judge, as shown in comments he made in open court which made its way into the ruling.

Given the fact that it is uncontested that you and your co-defendant M’membe approached President Banda during his tenure for financial assistance but were refused, you both have harboured ill will towards my client that has manifested itself in this notorious campaign of defamation, intimidation, and harassment against him and his family.

Along with the Patriotic Front’s apparent goal of returning Zambia to a one-party state and President Sata’s determination to wipe out political competition, the Nchito-M’membe defamation conspiracy against the Banda family found an enthusiastic sponsor in the administration.

Objectively, Mr. Nchito, this position raises important considerations of professional criteria of office. The reasonable apprehension of bias both subjectively and objectively represents a hurdle you could not overcome before any rule of law court. It is arguable that your conduct itself constitutes a perversion of justice, particularly in combination with the illegal arrests and detentions of opposition leaders, which have damaged Zambia’s standing as a state supposedly enjoying an independent judicial system.

You have also violated the Guidelines for proper prosecutorial conduct promulgated by both the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the United Nations.

The African Commission’s Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair Trial and Legal Assistance in Africa require that prosecutors “carry out their functions impartially and avoid all political … or any other kind of discrimination.”[1] They further mandate that Prosecutors “act with objectivity.”[2] And further, that prosecutors “shall always conduct themselves in accordance with … the recognized standards and ethics of their profession,”[3] and “perform their duties fairly, …, and respect and protect dignity and uphold human rights, thus contributing to ensuring due process …”[4]

Identical standards are included in the United Nations’ Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors.[5]

Your conduct violates all of these fundamental standards of prosecutorial ethics.

Your actions against President Banda, his family, and leaders of the opposition blatantly discriminate on political and other grounds, fail to meet minimum standards of impartiality, objectivity and fairness, and disrespect their dignity and human rights, including their right to due process of law. Your abusive actions fall far below the “recognized standards and ethics” governing prosecutorial conduct.

In addition, there is the fact that President Sata himself has interfered with the judicial process directly in an attempt to benefit you and M’membe by suspending the judges and justice who ruled against you in the DBZ case after a full hearing in a Zambian Court.

This, too, violates the African Guidelines, which mandate that judicial bodies “shall be independent from the executive branch” and free from “any inappropriate or unwarranted interference.”[6]

When you combine your record of contemptuous conduct to the judiciary with the illegal and defamatory attack on my client, it appears that such circumstances one might go over your head to the Minister of Justice.

The Minister of Justice Mr. Wynter Kabimba, however, also serves as Secretary General of the Patriotic Front, and has shown himself to be contemptuous of the investigative wings and to hold himself above the law. For ease of reference I attach a photo of the Justice Minister at the ACC accompanied by menacing PF thugs, refusing to answer substantive allegations over his own conduct.

In such a hopelessly politically charged and biased environment, your attempt to lift my client’s immunity represents a shameful departure from Zambian history.

I call upon you to resign from the post you should never have been awarded, and do the honourable thing, if you have any honour left.

In light of your behavior to date I intend to file a complaint before the African Commission for Human Rights early next week documenting these concerns and evidence of your misconduct unless I receive a satisfactory response by Monday close of business.

Sincerely,

Robert Amsterdam

International counsel to former President Rupiah Banda

Ruling PF Deputy Secretary General Bridget Atanga has charged that the move by leaders of the opposition to hold a news conference in Lusaka is a sign of total madness.

Mrs. Atanga observed that opposition leaders are exhibiting the highest levels of dishonesty by discrediting the PF government on foreign soil.

“This is unheard of. I have never heard of leaders running to other countries to air their grievances which could be resolved internally. These so called leaders should put their priorities right,” Mrs. Atanga said.

She said the opposition leaders should re-evaluate their priorities if they are to stand a chance of leading Zambians.

“When His Excellency Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata was campaigning, he never went to seek the international community’s indulgence to the problems Zambia was facing, he provided home grown solutions to those problems and he managed to win the elections.”

Mrs. Atanga said the opposition leaders attempt to embarrass and discredit President Sata’s administration will never work.

“Every genuine citizen of this country can see through their schemes but it won’t work, their South African trip was a waste of time,” she said.

Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba says the Patriotic Front (PF) Government is doing everything possible to guard against foreign interference in the on going republican Constitution making process.

Mr Kabimba reiterated Government’s commitment to ensuring that the constitution making process was not hijacked by foreign interests but that the final supreme law of the land needed to reflect the aspirations of the Zambian people.

Mr Kabimba who is in Cuba for a series of high level meetings with top officials of the Communist Party and Government of Cuba said this on Tuesday when he met Cuba’s Minister of Justice Maria Esther Reus in Havana.

“The new constitution will reflect the culture, norms and values of the Zambian people and that the new set of laws will be an instrument for social and economic transformation for the country,” he said.

Mr Kabimba, who is also Secretary General of the ruling PF, emphasised that Zambians would claim legal independence by enacting laws for themselves that protected their collective interests, and pointed out that there was a clear link between a legal regime and the economic and social development of a country.

And Ms Reus told Mr Kabimba that her country was also undergoing constitutional reforms in order to bring the country’s laws and regulation in tandem with the economic reforms that would usher in a new economic order.

She disclosed that 97 new regulations had so far been introduced in line with the economic reforms.

Ms Reus said Cuba, like Zambia, was also guarding the legal reforms against what she termed as ‘pollution’ from external forces.

She explained that Cuba was making strides despite economic difficulties resulting from the United States imposed blockade and the global economic crisis, pointing out that the country was intent on achieving economic independence through high productivity, which would lead to import substitution.

Ms Reus said that Cuba had achieved sufficient progress in empowering women, adding that 48 per cent of all Members of Parliament in Cuba were women, while the womenfolk also accounted for 60 per cent of the country’s professional workforce.

She called on increased solidarity between Cuba, Zambia and Africa as a whole. And Mr Kabimba has said Cuba has been Africa’s all weather friend and commended that country for the significant role it played in the liberation of Southern African countries.

He said this when he met the Deputy Head of the International Relations Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba at the Party Headquarters in Havana.

He said Cuba’s contribution to the liberation of countries such as Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique was in Zambia’s interest as a landlocked country which depended on the freedom and stability of its neighbours in order to carry out economic trade and development.

He urged Zambia and Cuba to build on the strong ties forged between the two countries by former leaders Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Commander Fidel Castro respectively, which he said had cooled off after Dr Kaunda left office and were only being revived following the PF’s ascendancy to power.

“We are happy to have the opportunity to renew our relations with Cuba and therefore hope that we can interact more often for the benefit of the people of Cuba and Zambia,” Mr Kabimba said.

And the Cuban Communist Party’s Deputy Head of International Relations, Oscar Martinez Cordoves said Cuba was grateful to Zambia for the solidarity with its people adding that Cuba had continued providing support to Africa in the areas of health and education despite economic challenges.

Mr Kabimba is in Cuba on invitation from the Communist Party of Cuba, to meet with senior Party and Cuban Government officials.

Former Communication and Transport Minister Mike Mulongoti has challenged government to justify its plans to have the Livingstone and Mpongwe by-elections ballot papers printed outside the country.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS Kitwe today Mr Mulongoti said government printers have the capacity to print the ballot papers and wondered why governments still wants to give the job to a foreign company.

He argued that government was contradicting itself as it had recently announced through the Minister of Communication and Transport Christopher Yaluma that Government Printers had the capacity to print ballot papers.

He accused some government officials of wanting to make money out of the ballot Paper printing contract.

He noted that the Patriotic Front government talks about creating employment in the country but the decision to award the contract of printing ballots paper to foreign company is creating jobs for people abroad leaving the local people wallowing in poverty.

Mr Mulongoti further stated that the move was as good as declaring Government Printers redundant because there was no way government should continue paying huge sums of money to foreign companies to print ballot papers when the Government Printers had the capacity to do the same job.

Two week ago Electoral Commission of Zambia Senior Public Relations officer Sylvia Bwalya announced that the ballot papers for the forth coming Livingstone and Mpongwe parliamentary by-elections will be printed from the UK by a company called Smith and Ouznam.

Livingstone Central and Mpongwe constituencies will be holding by-elections on the 28th of February following the resignation of Howard Sikwela of the United Party for National Development and Gabriel Namulambe of the MMD.

ZANIS

Government has developed a new school curriculum that will enable learners to choose a career path and guidance framework on the preferred type of education for the nation.

And a study on the Zambian literacy levels has revealed that the country is placed second from the bottom out of the 15 countries in the sub region that were surveyed for three years.

Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education Minister, John Phiri, said the framework provides curriculum guidelines and structures at all education levels.

Dr Phiri explained that the framework is being piloted in selected districts and schools in all the ten provinces that will be evaluated before being fully implemented in January, 2014.

He was speaking after witnessing trial lessons at David Kaunda National Technical Secondary School before launching the trialling phase of the revised school curriculum in Lusaka today.

Dr Phiri stated that the new national curriculum framework has reviewed the structure of the curriculum at all levels.

Earlier, David Kaunda National Technical Secondary School Parent Teacher Association (PTA) chairperson, Martin Mwale, commended government for responding positively to concerns by parents against the current curriculum.

Mr Mwale said he is hopeful that the revised curriculum will be responsive to the needs of individual learners and equip them to contribute effectively to national development.

Meanwhile, Dr Phiri has disclosed that a study conducted by the Southern African Consortium for Measuring Education Quality (SACMEQ) survey results from 2007 to 2010 has Zambia second last out of 15 countries surveyed.

Dr Phiri explained that the results place Zambia second from the bottom out of 15 countries in the sub-region in terms of Grade 5 and 6 learners’ literacy levels.

He pointed out that the research results by the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) over the same period have almost yielded the same depressing results.

Dr Phiri added that there is evidence that the school system at Grades 7 and 9 throws out learners who have no skills to survive on their own because the current curriculum prepares learners for white collar jobs.

ZANIS