HRC agrees with LAZ on Mutembo

HRC agrees with LAZ on Mutembo
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 4:32:53 PM

Human Rights Commission (HRC) vice-chairperson Palan Mulonda has said the Law Association of Zambia's position that Mutembo Nchito be given adequate opportunity to be heard before judgment can be madeon his role as Task Force
on Corruption prosecutor is an important principle of law.

Briefing the press yesterday, Mulonda said calls to have Nchito removed as prosecutor of the Task Force on Corruption were one thing and moving to act was another.

He said the commission believed in the principle of law and that before any decision could be carried out on Nchito, he should be heard.

He hoped that the principles of natural justice would be adhered to.

However, Mulonda said the commission would now distance itself from either camps calling for the resignation of Nchito from the Task Force on Corruption following the recording of a warn and caution statement by law enforcement agencies and those against this.

On Sunday, Forum for Leadership Search (FLS) executive director Edwin Lifwekelo asked Nchito to resign following the recording of a warn and caution from him by law enforcement agencies over Zambian Airways' debt to National Corporation Limited. The law enforcement agencies also recorded a warn and caution statement from Post editor Fred M'membe as The Post is a shareholder in the airline.

And Mulonda implored all leaders to put aside their partisan concerns and for once put their heads together for the purpose of searching for possible local solutions to the problems currently facing the nation.

Mulonda urged the government to forge more vigorously with existing measures undertaken to redress the economic meltdown.

He applauded the initiative to hold a national indaba to tackle important matters affecting the nation.

Mulonda said the commission had suffered from a lack of domestication of universal and regional instruments by Zambia.

He called for the enactment of a comprehensive and progressive human rights Act for Zambia within the framework of the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP).

Mulonda also said the commission had received a large percentage of complaints relating to violation of workers’ rights in the form of investors, foreign and local, big and small, utilising labour and not compensating for it adequately, dismissing workers in flimsy grounds, not giving them ample notice or payment in Lieu of notice.

He cited attempts to deny workers their inalienable right to belong to or form a trade union of their choice and the infamous casualisation of labour, which keeps workers, tied down to slave conditions of service without signed contracts or other documentation.

Mulonda said the commission had also received complaints of unjust treatment of subjects by traditional rulers who included chiefs, their indunas, headmen and in some cases, even chiefs' retainers.

He also said police on a very wide scale still abused suspects through brutal interrogation methods like beatings, intimidation undue and lengthy detentions.

"We still receive reports of extra judicial killings of suspects. We believe that extra judicial killings do not in any way contribute to effective policing," he said.

Mulonda also reminded the media to operate within the confines of their professional ethics.

"I repeat that your own ethics must be adhered to. To illustrate the point, some of the footage shown on our TV stations, such as that of badly mutilated bodies of road accident victims or suspects slain by police, suicides and the like must be carefully looked at before being slashed on our screens for general viewership," said Mulonda.