LITIGANTS URGED TO GAIN EVIDENCE
…as military locks down Zambian courts
By DAVID KANDUZA
KITWE based legal expert Clement Tafeni has advised citizens to secure proof of State-enforced barriers to protect their legal rights amid unprecedented judiciary shutdowns.
Mr Tafeni who is Managing Partner at Tafeni & Company Legal Practitioners urged litigants and legal practitioners caught up in the current nationwide military lockdown of court premises to actively gather and preserve airtight evidence showing they had been blocked from filing time-sensitive matters.
He issued an advisory following a sudden wave of court closures implemented under heavy military guard.
The unprecedented shutdown, which authorities attribute broadly to undisclosed security reasons, had effectively barred the public and legal practitioners from entering court premises and registries countrywide.
This had sparked fears of a looming constitutional crisis, particularly concerning strict statutory timelines for presidential election petitions and emergency applications for personal liberty.
Speaking on the legal implications of the shutdown on his official Facebook page, Mr Tafeni warned that individuals who miss crucial legal deadlines could not simply rely on the public notoriety of the closures to excuse their delay.
“When courts are under guard of the military and closed to members of the public, one has to have evidence that he had been prevented from taking a step because the court or judge is inaccessible and you are out of time as a result,” Mr Tafeni clarified.