Maravi

Kabimba accuses Rupiah of intimidating judiciary

Kabimba accuses Rupiah of intimidating judiciary
By George Chellah
Tue 09 Aug. 2011, 14:02 CAT

PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba says President Rupiah Banda is intimidating the judiciary on the origins case. Reacting to President Banda’s statement that he was going to file his nomination papers tomorrow, Kabimba, who is also a lawyer, wondered why the President was discussing a matter that is still active in court.

“The statement attributed to Mr. Rupiah Banda in the press regarding his origins issue which is pending a ruling before the High Court is not only unfortunate but makes very sad reading,” Kabimba said.

“It is clear that the President wants to intimidate the judiciary in a matter where he is personally interested and which directly affects him.”

He said it was a common principle that when a matter is subjudice and awaiting determination by the courts of law no person should make any statement, which would tend to prejudice the proceedings in such a matter.

“This is what is referred to as contempt of court. There is no doubt that Mr Rupiah Banda’s statement is intended to prejudice the ruling by the High Court which is due to be delivered on Tuesday today at 08:30 hours,” Kabimba said.

“But Mr Rupiah Banda is not a common person, he is the head of state and therefore, his commenting so extensively on a matter that is before the court is tantamount to intimidating the judiciary as head of state.”

He said the best President Banda could do was to allow the High Court to make an independent and judicious judgment in the matter regarding the application under consideration.

“For the President to emphatically state that he is going to file his nomination papers on Wednesday tomorrow is to prejudice the outcome of the application that is before the High Court,” Kabimba said.

“Unless he knows which way the ruling will go. And if this is so, the question would be, ‘how does he know?’ How is he so sure that the ruling will be in his favour to allow him to file his nomination papers on Wednesday?”

He said the problem with African dictators was that they live in a fool’s paradise.

“They come to believe that the law is no longer applicable to them as citizens of a country. This was the case with Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ben Ali of Tunisia, Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast and Mobutu Seseseko of the then Zaire,” Kabimba said.

“They all lived in a fool’s paradise and started believing that they were not governed by the law of the land anymore. We all know the consequences of living in a fool’s paradise from these dictators.

“They were thrown out of power by the same people that they took for granted and consequently prosecuted under the same laws which they regarded with great impunity. Our advice as PF to President Banda is that he must allow our judiciary to execute its duties diligently and without any undue pressure through his reckless statements.”

Speaking when he visited the MMD campaign centre in Lusaka on Sunday, President Banda said he was not worried about the Patriotic Front's legal action against him over the origins of his parents but that he was more worried about Micheal Sata whom he said claimed to be a democratic leader.

President Banda said he was a Zambian because he had done more things for the people of Zambia and for Zambia than Sata had adding that everybody knew him and that that was the most unfortunate part about the PF's action.

“In any case what kind of country do we want to build where we have to dig people all the time? They did it to Dr Kaunda, they did it to Chiluba, they did it to Mwanawasa and they want to do it to me, what will happen to this country when we the old people are dead? What will happen to you, every time you want to do something ati no no uyu ni waku Tanzania, Congo, we all came from everywhere this is nonsense and we have people of other colours as well,” he said.

President Banda assured the gathering that he was Zambian and that they should not worry about him.

“On Wednesday I am going to file my things nominations and he is going to see wemu tema mwala he will see who has stoned him, he will see the people of Zambia coming to witness the same because it is very important that am sworn in. They are wasting their time they are just irritating us Zambians, us Zambians who want to build a Zambia where everybody can come in and stay,” said President Banda.

Labels: RUPIAH BANDA, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 5:43 PM