Maravi

Rupiah has instilled fear in the judiciary – Sata

Rupiah has instilled fear in the judiciary – Sata
By George Chellah
Sat 21 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT

PF leader Michael Sata yesterday said President Rupiah Banda’s administration has instilled a lot of fear in the judiciary.

Reacting to chief government spokesperson Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha’s statement that the government will not appeal against Lusaka High Court judge Evans Hamaundu’s ruling on the registration of the London judgment, Sata observed that President Banda’s government was embarrassing the judiciary.

“There is no one undermining the judiciary apart from the government itself. In fact, the judiciary has been over-undermined by Rupiah and his government, that’s why they are saying don’t appeal against the ruling,” Sata said.

“But their position on these matters is understood because how do you expect this government to appeal against such decisions?”

He said President Banda’s administration was not helping the judiciary in any way.

“There is so much fear in the judiciary at the moment. Rupiah’s government has instilled so much fear in the judiciary, which is very sad. Our men and women in the judiciary are working with a government which does not support them,” Sata said.

“They are working with a government which is determined to publicly humiliate them to our people. I honestly sympathise with our men and women in the judiciary. This government would like to go with the judiciary as far as they can so long as it makes decisions in its favour. They know that as long as the judiciary makes decisions in favour of the government, Rupiah will be very happy.”

He said it was clear that President Banda’s government had no regard for the country’s judicial processes.

“Just from disgraced Shikapwasha’s statement you can see that they are determined to completely run down the judiciary. How can Shikapwasha say that they will not appeal against this judgment?” Sata asked.

“Isn’t that embarrassing for the country to have a government that is more than willing to publicly make such statements? They are doing things with impunity.
“But tell them that we know that they have now run out of lies to tell our people on these matters. So the best they should do is to openly suspend the entire appeal process. Let them scrap it off because these people have no shame and it appears they would really love to see the appeal process suspended or removed.”

He said no Zambian takes President Banda’s government seriously on matters of governance and the rule of law.

“Disgraced Shikapwasha is just wasting his time to justify the unjustifiable. Whenever he opens his mouth, Zambians know what to expect,” said Sata.

On Thursday, Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the government had no intention of appealing against judge Hamaundu’s ruling on Chiluba.

Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the government had more important things to pursue than appeal the matter and subsequently undermine the work of the judiciary.

Labels: JUDICIARY, MICHAEL SATA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 5:35 PM