By Fred M’membe President of the Socialist Party
The UPND cadres’ holding of a press briefing at the court’s premises to call for changes in the judiciary amounts to unacceptable intimidation and harassment of judges and magistrates. This barbarism undermines the independence of our judges and magistrates and the rule of law in general.
Do they want our judges and magistrates to behave like Pontius Pilate who abdicated his responsibility, washed his hands and allowed Christ to be crucified, nailed to the cross?
Do they want to see legitimate, fair trials – with the presumption of innocence until proven guilty – of crime suspects or crucifixion? This is gross intimidation, threatening or blackmail of judges and magistrates which seriously undermines their independence. With this act, the UPND has seriously undermined their fight against corruption.
Let our judges and magistrates decide cases in an impartial manner. The way to achieve this impartiality – to allow judges to decide cases based on what the law actually requires, and on nothing else – is to ensure that judges and magistrates are independent, or, put differently, not subject to reprisals for decisions they make on the bench.
If judges misconduct themselves, there’s the Judicial Complaints Commission to deal with that – make your complaints there, don’t resort to anarchy.