Judges get around $2,000, that’s quite low – Sangwa
By ZR Reporter
Judges get around $2,000 (monthly salary), that’s quite low, says renowned constitutional Lawyer John Sangwa, State Counsel, as he categorises them among the lowly paid civil servants.
And Mr Sangwa has argued that there is no single judge in this country that can claim to have been appointed on merit.
He added that appointing a judge is like an induction in a secret society.
“First of all, nobody knows how these judges are identified and that is why I was saying let there be a transparent system where you advertise, people are openly interviewed and you even have a score sheet… you scored this, therefore, we are making you a judge,” he said when he featured on Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba’s “The Conversation” Podcast.
“That process is a cleansing process so that someone can now claim to say I was appointed on merit. There is no single judge in this country that can claim to have been appointed on merit. And that, the minds, the independence of the institution, the independence of the individual judges…”
Mr Sangwa said in most progressive societies, the processes in question processes are open and transparent.
“Because if you challenge any judge you say fine, how did you get yourself appointed? Who did you compete against for you claim that you were appointed on merit? Nobody can answer that question,” he said.
“The whole process is dark… and that is why we fought so hard to make sure that we put a new system in place to ensure that judges are appointed on merit. Obviously they fought it and there was some weak excuse to say well you needed to pass an enabling law and so forth. I mean that was completely false. You didn’t need to do that because this is simply an administrative process that could have been put in place.”
Meanwhile, Mr Sangwa said the judiciary ought to be adequately funded.
“Right now, judges are some of the lowly paid civil servants… judges get around $2,000, that’s quite low,” he said.
“Other brunches of the judiciary can struggle financially, but the judiciary should never, okay? Because once the judiciary is gone, the whole country is gone, and that is exactly what has happened. There is no talk about improving the condition of the judges.”
©️ ZAMBIA REPORTS, 19TH SEP 2024.
Indeed this salary is very low compared to what the conman pays his LGBT masters.
Vote the lacuna out.
Vote very wisely in 2026.
Who is paying you? Do you get paid by the displayed level of 5tupidity or number of ar55hole comments?
Even doctors who save lives don’t get so much as judges. They should appreciated.
Among John Sangwa’s former lecturers are some people who are now serving in the Judiciary as judges. Now Sangwa thinks he’s better than them in terms of knowledge of the law. It’s tragic really.
Why should judges be an exceptional? The K50,000 is already high in comparison to other professionals in the coin
What about the free cars, fuel allowances, armed state guards and generous pensions that are indexed to the salaries of serving judges that they get upon retirement? Has John Sangwa taken that into account? I doubt it he has but he just wants to ruffle feathers as usual.
Imagine all these fringe benefits. Does he think Zambia is like Sweden or Luxembourg or some such country where people are highly paid?
Imagine all these fringe benefits. Does he think Zambia is like Sweden or Luxembourg or some such country where people are highly paid?
This is why Sangwa fails when it comes to politics. He scores very low when it comes to emotional intelligence. Sangwa lives in a Country where Gazatted minimum wage is k2313 gross yet laments conditions of Judges who get paid over $2000 plus fringe benefits. Does he even understand the concept of income inequality if he was accorded the opportunity to serve? Majority of the populace care less about the constitution or how judges are appointed more than they do for matters of food on the table. Education in Zambia and most African countries has just served to divide the people through income inequalities than achieve Human development.
The condition of the judiciary has little to do with conditions of service. It is a matter of the individual judge’s integrity. Even with a salary of US$2,000 if the judge is a man/woman of integrity, he/she will deliver justice. The prerequisite for justice is the fear of God.
The Bible says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out of it”. If a judge has no integrity, no amount of renumeration will satisfy him. Greed knows no bounds.
So the US$2,000 the judges get is enough. What they are getting must be seen against what other equally important professionals are getting, such as doctors and engineers, within the government structure.
The stupidity of this foolish man is beyond understanding. In his stupid mind, he thinks everyone should be a lawyer to understand the constitution and the laws.
But no! I don’t need a law degree to understand the law. The law is for poor and to protect laymen and everyone.
I feel like vomiting whenever I see anything from this bearded fool. Anyway, epotuli, we have to survive with this idyot called Sangwa!
Sangwa used to be intelligent, what has criped in aftet coming out from Silent whispers. The agenda of …just by all means to REMOVE HH and UPND is making them loose focus on the point to convince Zambians why they want HH our of State House. High cost of living is world wide concern not only in Zambia. Which political Party can perform miracles to take country to low prices. How? Which formula? It can’t never. High cost is the order of the day. Starting from 1964 cost of living has been going up and that is normal. Compare on MMD and PF you will see that cost of living in MMD was lower than in PF. Similarly you can’t expect low cost in UPND…How?
This time, salaries for government workers are harmonized, they don’t look at the job one does but at the qualifications that one has. That being the case, regardless of the job you do, all the certificate holders are in one group, diploma holders, one group, first degree holders, one group, those with masters, one group, those with Phd, one group and Professors, one group. I don’t think Judges have their own special qualifications apart from these I have mentioned above. The only difference is in allowances, e.g. doctors have on call allowance, teachers have double class allowance, degree holders have retention allowance while those in administrative jobs have what they call none practice allowance. Then there are many other allowances like housing, rural hardship, remote and so on. It also depends on the level at which you are, you can have fuel, education, holiday, entertainment allowance etc. So a Senior Lawyer like Sangwa should know all this. Different jobs, different allowances but same qualifications, same salaries and salaries for Civil Servants are bargained at the same time by their respective Unions.