Any disciplinary action against Malila, Sichinga will be victimisation - former

Any disciplinary action against Malila, Sichinga will be victimisation - former Attorney General Mut
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 4:09:04 PM

FORMER attorney general Bonaventure Mutale yesterday said any disciplinary action against Attorney General Mumba Malila and Solicitor General Dominic Sichinga by President Rupiah Banda will be clearly victimisation of the two.

In an interview in Lusaka, Mutale said Malila and Sichinga were professional in their guidance to Siliya, the Ministry of Communications and Transport and in their submissions to the judge Dennis Chirwa-chaired tribunal.

"I have gone through the [judge Dennis Chirwa-chaired tribunal] report, I am afraid I have not seen that finding of fact which specifically states that the Attorney General and the Solicitor General misled Ms Siliya," said Mutale, who was one of the lawyers for the petitioners in the tribunal set up to investigate Siliya's alleged contravention of the parliamentary and ministerial code of conduct.

"In my view, the opinion of the Attorney General and the Solicitor General given in their evidence and the correspondence that they produced before the tribunal was very professional and highlighted all the pertinent issues that the minister and her ministry ought to have considered before executing the [Memorandum of Understanding] MoU."

However, he said he would wait and see how President Banda would reorganise the Attorney General's chambers as he had informed the nation.

"It is unfortunate if an attempt is now being made to cover Ms Siliya's wrongdoing by penalising the Attorney General and Solicitor General. I think that is all I can say for the time being until we see what the President will do in his reorganisation of the Attorney General's chambers," Mutale said.

"But I think that let's wait and see what he is going to do to them [Malila and Sichinga] because if he does take disciplinary action against them, it will be clearly victimisation. But at this stage I think it will be premature for me to make a comment until I have seen what he will do."

He said Siliya's resignation should not put an end to this matter.

"But I think I will only be able to make a meaningful comment on this after we hear what the President has to say on the recommendations of the tribunal after he has studied it fully," Mutale said.

The judge Dennis Chirwa-chaired tribunal found that Siliya breached Article 54 sub Article 3 of the Constitution when she engaged RP Capital Partners Limited of Cayman Islands to valuate the assets of Zamtel without following the legal advice from the Attorney General.