Maravi

Caritas assures Judiciary of endless public scrutiny

Caritas assures Judiciary of endless public scrutiny
By Ernest Chanda
Wed 04 Jan. 2012, 13:56 CAT

SAMUEL Mulafulafu says the public will continue to judge the performance of the Judiciary to ensure fairness. Commenting on Chief Justice Ernest Sakala's appeal to newly-appointed judges and magistrates to change the negative image of the institution, Mulafulafu, who is Caritas Zambia executive director, said people wanted action and not mere talk.

Mulafulafu said even though most members of the public were not lawyers, they would continue to question some of the decisions the institution made.

He appealed to the office of the Chief Justice to take a leading role by talking to all officers of the court.

"The comment is welcome; at all times the head of the Judiciary should be seen to be encouraging integrity in the Judiciary. And as he rightly pointed out, the public perception out there is that of disrespect only in the performance of the Judiciary. And the Judiciary should be seen to walk the talk. The improvement will continue to be judged by the public even when they are not lawyers themselves. They will continue to see how the Judiciary operates," Mulafulafu said.

"If they Judiciary show the same weaknesses, definitely the indictment will be on the supervising office that it's not doing its job."

Mulafulafu said it was good that the Chief Justice had taken the decision to appeal to the Judiciary to do the right thing because for anything wrong in the Judiciary, somebody had to be accountable.

"He is the head of the Judiciary; he will get the blame," he said.

He said it was difficult for the Judiciary to uphold justice if the public perceived that it had no integrity.

Mulafulafu challenged justice Sakala to back his words with action and improve the institution's image in the public eye.

"As he said, that they want to uphold justice and so forth, that has to be within the atmosphere of integrity, public confidence and ensuring that everybody genuinely receives justice from the courts of law. The fact that the Chief Justice himself recognises it is very important. But we hope he will follow his work; that it will not be a situation of rhetoric," said Mulafulafu.

"The perception the public has out there is negative, and positive action is needed. Judicial officers should do their best to be objective. We hope it is not a fact of mere talking expected from somebody who is the head of the Judiciary but that even within the internal administration of the Judiciary, he will follow and talk to the officers there. The biggest problem that we have is not only suspicious judgments but also the rate at which the courts operate; the delaying of cases and also you don't see how the priorities are made. Some cases are speedily looked at in the courts of law while others drag for a long time. I think all those issues of fairness must be looked at if the Judiciary has to improve its image."

According to a statement issued in Lusaka last week, justice Sakala called on adjudicators to prove that the Judiciary was capable of managing its own affairs.

He said judges and magistrates should not delay judgments to allay the negative perception that the public holds against the Judiciary.

Labels: CARITAS, JUDICIARY, TRANSPARANCY

posted by MrK @ 5:35 PM