Changwe must face consequences of her actions – Mulafulafu

Changwe must face consequences of her actions – Mulafulafu
By George Chellah
Sat 21 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT

CARITAS Zambia executive director Sam Mulafulafu yesterday said gender deputy minister Lucy Changwe must be compelled to face the consequences of her actions. Commenting on the delay by the police to arrest and prosecute Changwe for bouncing a cheque amounting to K10 million, Mulafulafu described the situation as baffling.

“It seems there is reluctance to deal with the matter. A precedent has been set by a court in Ndola,” Mulafulafu said.

“But now here is a case with merit but we are not seeing similar effort to bring her to book for willfully bouncing a cheque. Changwe should be compelled to face the consequences of her actions.”

He condemned the manner in which the George Mpombo case was handled.

“There are double standards being set. And we are more and more losing faith in our courts of law. The Mpombo case was manipulated, it was used to enhance political fights,” Mulafulafu said.

“A cheque was withdrawn so all those issues were supposed to have been taken into account.”

He said Changwe’s case casts a dark cloud on the country’s rule of law.

“Some of us have long lost faith in the courts of law. The application of the law has not been fair. There has been no consistence. Everybody can clearly see including an illiterate person,” said Mulafulafu.

“And it’s dangerous if people lose faith in the courts of law because they will take things into their own hands and that can be a recipe for anarchy. There has been abuse of the courts of law especially by politicians.”

Changwe, who is also Mkushi North MMD member of parliament, bounced a K10 million cheque in a house purchase transaction.

Roger Musonda, the owner of the property in question has already reported the matter to police.

Musonda said he was convinced that there was a strong case against Changwe. He said he was very suspicious about the delay by police to arrest and prosecute Changwe for bouncing a cheque.

Recently, Mpombo was convicted by the magistrate’s court in Ndola on one count of issuing a cheque on an insufficiently funded account.
Mpombo was slapped with a two months jail sentence and a K4 million fine.