Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba and Heritage Party leader Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda Tuesday night differed over the continued stay of Acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda during a live Cross fire radio blog debate. The debate aired from the UK also discussed other governance issues including the controversial Public Order Act. Mr. Kabimba maintained that Acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda is fully qualified to hold her current position. He said despite attaining the retirement age of 65, the constitution allows Justice Chibesakunda to act in that position for a period of seven years. “Our constitution allows her to continue in that appointment for a further seven years maximum but broken into shorter periods on contract. Justice Chibesakunda is acting, she is not the substantive CJ and for us that is what is important” Mr. Kabimba said. He explained that the issue surrounding her appointment is whether Justice Chibesakunda qualifies to be the substantive Chief Justice. “The niceties of this matter and this what we are discussing with LAZ is whether her Ladyship now qualifies to be made the substantive CJ but the fact is that her current position is fully supported by the constitution.” And Mr. Kabimba has advised General Miyanda to stop purporting to have the knowledge on constitutional matters when infact he does not qualify to do so. He said General Miyanda and other Zambians criticizing the appointment of Justice Chibesakunda are doing so from a point of ignorance. “Now this is the problem we have in this country. We have people like General Miyanda here, with due respect to him who walk around this country purporting to possess the knowledge on the constitution when they don’t even qualify to interpret the law. This is very dangerous for this country and it should come to a stop,” Mr. Kabimba said. “I’m a qualified lawyer in this country. I spent five years reading the law and work on these matters every day, not from an academic point of view but from a practical one. This debate with a man who clearly does not understand the law will not be very helpful to the listeners” “We have people that know everything in this country. I’m not a solider and I cannot claim to know how to command a platoon like General Miyanda does. It is therefore important that the good General hires services of a lawyer next time he wants to comment on legal matters,” Mr. Kabimba said. But General Miyanda kept interjecting Mr. Kabimba arguing that he fully understands the law. “I don’t need to be a lawyer to understand what our Republican constitution says. What you are offering here is your opinion and what I’m offering here is my opinion. It still does not make you right about these issues and this why we have the Courts of Law for correct interpretation,” General Miyanda. On the same programme, General Miyanda maintained that it is not in the best interest of the judiciary to have an acting Chief Justice for a long period. He appealed to President Sata to consider submitting a new name to Parliament for ratification for the position of Chief Justice. General Miyanda further challenged Mr. Kabimba to cite the exact Article in the Constitution which refers to the appointment of the Chief Justice and how long he/she can act in that position. “Since you are insisting I cite the Article, let me just tell you that Article 91 to 97 talks about the Judicature, it is from there where you will find specific provisions on the appointment of the CJ.” But when challenged further, Mr. Kabimba revealed that there were amendments to the constitution to allow the Chief Justice to act for maximum seven years. “Now that you have mentioned that they were some amendments to provide for the seven year maximum period in which she can act, maybe now we can shift the debate to the issue of her contract,” General Miyanda said.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 07:29:59 +0000
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