ABOUT THE ZAMBIAN JUDICIARY
By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. To say that we need to reform our judiciary is an understatement. In fact, what we need is a total overhaul of the entire system so that it can better deliver on its mandate. When it comes to the Zambian judiciary, my biggest bone of contention is the slow pace at which it delivers justice. Over the years the criminal justice system at magistrate level has seen some very good improvements, but the same cannot be said at High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court level.
2. In my view, the Zambian judiciary is largely to blame for this country’s underdevelopment over the years, due to its failure to dispense justice on a timely basis thereby making Zambia less attractive as an investment destination. When compared to other jurisdictions in the region, the performance of our judiciary is extremely poor. Imagine, as we speak right now the Supreme Court of Zambia is sitting on appeals that are more than 10 years old such as that involving Mr Aaron Chungu and Mr Faustin Kabwe. How can an appeal take more than 10 years without being determined sure? Where is the justice in that? As a nation, courtesy of President Levy Mwanawasa, we have taken very good care of our men and women in lobes, but the question is; have these men and women really taken care of the country in return? Have they discharged their mandate in return for the really high perks we give them?
3. When you go to the High Court in Lusaka and you look at the multi-million Kwacha Landcruiser VXs parked there for judges, with their chauffeurs standing by and polishing the vehicles the whole day, you would think there is a high powered CEO business conference going on. You wouldn’t think those vehicles belong to judicial officers of one of the poorest countries in the world. At High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and Constitutional Court level, our judicial officers there are the most well remunerated and yet they appear to be the most lazy. On the other hand, at Magistrates level, the judicial officers there are very poorly remunerated and yet they deliver justice with amazing efficiency. What a misnomer! Except for constitutional office holders, our judges are the only ones l know of who continue to get as much as 90% of their salary after their retirement, and when they die, their spouse continue to get 50% of the monthly salary until they also die. With such kind of extremely good conditions of service, one would expect our judiciary to be the most productive arm of the state. But no. To the contrary they have, over the years perfected the art of masking their incompetence and laziness with threats of contempt of court, if you question them. But these people get paid taxpayers’ money. Our money. So why shouldn’t we question their poor delivery of justice?
4. In other jurisdictions, an urgent matter is really urgent and if a judge has to be woken up from sleep or pulled out of another siting to consider it, they will. But here in Zambia it does not matter whether you attach a certificate of urgency to your matter at the High Court. It will take more than a week before it is even heard, and in the meantime it would have been superseded by events. And the court would not even be remorseful that it did not hear the matter on time. The judiciary has really made a joke of this country. Indeed, our peers in the region see us as jokers. But where did we really go wrong? As a nation we gave the best of whatever little that we have to our men and women in lobes but have not been repaid. What should we do next about it? Maybe we should revise their conditions of service to those of ordinary civil servants since they have failed to live up to the exceptional conditions of service. Maybe we should withdraw those chauffeured multi million Kwacha Toyota Landcruiser VXs so that they buy their own Toyota Allions and Vitz. Once they start taking their jobs seriously then we can reinstall their perks?
5. But the bigger question is; what has been the impact of the slow delivery of justice by the higher courts? To start with, total chaos across the country. Take for instance the confusion taking place in political parties such as Harry Kalaba’s Democratic Party. This confusion has been on-going for months and chances are that it will not be resolved for the next couple of years, if the MMD, UNIP and NDC confusion examples are anything to go by. As a result of the failure to resolve the DP wrangle which is currently in court, on a timely basis, the DP lost the opportunity to file in a candidate in the Kabwata by-election. That is undermining our democracy. Political dispute cases are supposed to be urgent and should be resolved with finality by the courts within a matter of days or weeks at the most. They should not be allowed to go on and on forever, as the case has been in this country so far. But our judiciary seems to be oblivious to the anarchy that is created by their laziness, incompetence and lack of sense of urgency. But now that we have a new President and a new Chief Justice, should we expect the performance of our judiciary to improve? Or perhaps appeals such as those of Aaron Chungu and Faustin Kabwe will still be taking more than 10 years to be decided upon? Well that remains to be seen, but am not optimistic about it. Our judiciary has indeed developed into a monolith of injustice that is ready to devour anyone who challenges it.
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SET 07.01.2022