PRESIDENT HICHILEMA BEING MISLED BY HIS ‘MEN’
By Jackson Silavwe
It is absolutely amazing that the Republican President Hakainde can be made to make an extremely inaccurate statement regarding the granting of immunity or agreement not to prosecute.
The false statement that in Zambia no agreements not to prosecute are ever entered into shows a deliberate amnesia on the part of the President and his ‘men’. These agreements or indemnity agreements have a long public history.
Every Zambian knows that the Late Mundia Sikatana was given indemnity against prosecution in the Shamwana Treason Case. This fact was widely covered even in the international press.
Another case widely covered in both the local and international press is that of former Chief Justice Mathew Wataba Ngulube who entered into an agreement with the then DPP not to face charges arising from his getting money from President Chiluba’s Zamtrop account.
Let us not forget the Rajan Mahtani forgery allegation matter where Mahtani was given immunity over disputed share transfer certificates. There was an attempt to privately prosecute Mr. Mahtani. Mr. Mahtani went to challenge the proposed prosecution in the High Court. The court ruled that Mahtani could not be prosecuted because he had been given indemnity. The court, in the case of Rajan Mahtani v The Attorney General 2015/HP/942, therefore recognized the power of the DPP to enter into such indemnity arrangements.
The advisors of the President had a duty to bring this to the attention of the Republican President rather than exposing him to possible public ridicule for making a misinformed statement.
Such lapses by his aides and advisors will bring the Presidency into disrepute. He should sanction whoever misled him and exposed a totally inadequate team surrounding the Presidency.
What is even more worrying is that the agreement protecting the former Chief Justice Mathew Ngulube was drawn by the law firm Malambo and Co. The two partners in Malambo and Co are Justice Minister Mulambo Haimbe and Judicial Complaints Commission Chair Vincent Malambo SC.
Shouldn’t Hon Haimbe resign for making what he clearly knew was a false statement? Shouldn’t Haimbe’s partner Vincent Malambo declare interest and not sit on the panel looking at the DPP’s case?
Shouldn’t President Hakainde bring this farcical persecution of the DPP to an end?
GPZ, Our People First.
Silavwe Jackson
President
Golden Party of Zambia
(GPZ)