By Kombe Mataka
WE’RE not going to run this country through treachery, misinformation and taking advantage citizens, says governance activist Brebner Changala.
He warned that, “we are sliding into anarchy if we threaten constitutional office holders.”
Changala has challenged President Hakainde Hichilema to address the nation to explain the Director of Public Prosecution debacle.
“What Ministry of Justice was doing yesterday (Wednesday press briefing) was fire-fighting. What we wanted here is if the President and indeed the State House staff at one point were in a meeting with Milingo Lungu (former KCM provisional liquidator). Was there any contact between these two parties? And indeed who initiated the meeting for Milingo and the Head of State? Anything else will fall into place. We are not going to run this country through treachery, misinformation and taking the citizenry for granted,” Changala when he featured on Hot FM’s Breakfast Show yesterday. “Many of us who had risen to condemn the DPP [Lillian Siyunyi] have taken a back seat in shame because we were not privy to the under current that was flowing which was exposed by a court document which was filed by Milingo and this must be sorted out before the fire-fighting. When the justice minister [Mulambo Haimbe] came to address the media where was the [chief] government spokesperson [Chushi Kasanda]? Secondly, President of the Republic of Zambia, he has gone below media radar. He cannot be dictated to. The man has been out of the media and so we don’t know what is going on. He is the only man that can give a strong and clear statement on this debacle.”
Changala said State House must be truthful about the issue.
“No. We are playing words there. The President has never met Mr Milingo for the purpose of discussing immunity! So he met Milingo for other purposes? That is English. The truth of the matter is they met and when they met can they tell us what did they meet to discuss that made Milingo meet the Minister of Finance [Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane], the Vice-President [Mutale Nalumango] and meet the President in one room. Were they discussing family issues?” he asked.
“We have to have that clarified. You see the Minister of Justice overstepped his mandate. My worry is they are playing with the DPP. If they succeed they will engage another judge who they don’t want and also put him under pressure. They are going to abuse the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) knowing very well that they have leverage over… When did they realise that there have been lapses in the Office of the DPP? What has caused them to wake up from slumber and see those lapses other than the Milingo debacle? There was nothing else that they were going to tell the people of Zambia that will justify their shortcomings.”
Changala charged that Haimbe was indirectly instructing the JCC to find the DPP wanting.
“We have walked this route before. We had a case of Mukelebai Mukelebai. We had a case of [Meebelo] Kalima. We had a case of Chalwe Mchenga who is now a judge [Court of Appeal]. We had a serious dramatic case of Mutembo Nchito in which I participated at first then took a step back when I realised the State’s intentions were not in good favour of the constitutional office that Mutembo Nchito was holding,” he said. “Unfortunately, I am seeing this repeating itself. Look at the names of the people that have been meeting the DPP trying to negotiate her exit? What has been the motivating factor that she (DPP) must exit before the Milingo debacle came?”
Changala said it seemed there was desire by the State to fix individuals using the issue of KCM.
“There has been this desire to find a case in the DPP so she can vacate office whereas the DPP enjoys security of tenure. We are seeing a well-orchestrated manoeuvre to remove the DPP from office by one section of a group of people inspired by the leadership of a political party, in this case the UPND. Zambia is bigger than the UPND. Why is that serious minded civil society when they realised that the DPP was under threat they have either taken a back seat and stopped talking? For those who are talking they are urging everybody to be cautious. We have a legitimate concern,” warned Changala. “If this pattern continues, this country will slide into anarchy. For the next victim, my worry is it will be a judge of the High Court. Court of Appeal or indeed the Supreme Court judge! They will just organise some mob and they will be all over ZNBC talking about the removal of that judge and that judge. We should not support that. I strongly speak as a good friend of the new dawn administration. We are sliding into anarchy if we threaten constitutional office holders.”
Milingo has has petitioned the State and its agents in the Constitutional Court over his re-arrest on allegations that he bought a house using tainted money when they entered into a pact to exempt him from prosecution after he rendered the mining firm’s account records and relinquished his position.
Lungu, who claimed to have negotiated for his freedom with President Hichilema’s principal private secretary, legal advisor, Attorney General, Solicitor General, the Administrator General and the Director of Public Prosecutions, said his re-arrest had no legal effect owing to the discontinuance of his criminal proceedings by the DPP.
He said the Drug Enforcement Commission’s decision to re-arrest him for possessing property suspected to be proceeds of crime was in breach of the agreement he signed with the State’s agents as it was unreasonable and an abuse of criminal proceedings to seize his property arrest, charge and prosecute him for acts that KCM had not complained of.
But Haimbe said President Hichilema and his government have no stratagem to compromise with criminals to pervert the course of justice.
Haimbe has cast off the DPP for abandoning the prosecution of Milingo Lungu for theft of K4.4 million and laundering the same and entering into a pact to exempt him from prosecution. He explained that Siyunyi made unwarranted decisions that were not in public interest as they were single sided and urged the JCC to speed up hearings of the complaints against her so that she can exculpate herself.
“We wish to end all public speculation which suggests that the presidency has interfered with the DPP’s functions in any way by issuing instructions to grant immunity to any person facing criminal proceedings in Zambia. No such instructions have ever been issued as doing so would be abhorrent to the principle of the new dawn government to protect institutions of governance and the rule of law,” Haimbe told the media. “We wish to make it clear for the avoidance of doubt that any action taken by the DPP in the exercise of her office has been done by her, in her sole discretion and in the purported exercise of her constitutional madate. It is not the policy of the new dawn government for the President to meet and negotiate with any person that is in conflict with the law for purposes of subverting the course of justice.”
He said the blunders made by the DPP need to be probed by relevant authorities.
“The public sentiments have by and large questioned the manner in which the DPP has conducted herself in relation to the prosecution of certain individuals, among them the former provisional liquidator of KCM Milingo Lungu,” Haimbe said. “We are alive to the fact that these matters are at various stages within the court system and as such they are subjudicae and not subject to discussion on their merits. In relation to the investigative, arrest and prosecutorial roles the ministry expects investigative commissions and those entrusted and bestowed with prosecutorial duties to operate within their statutory established legal mandate.”
He said though the DPP enjoys discretion in the exercise of her duty, her functional and institutional independence ought to be guided by public interest, administration of justice, integrity of the judicial system, and to prevent and avoid abuse of the legal process.
“There have been significant lapses on the part of the DPP which require thorough, independent and fair investigation by relevant bodies,” said Haimbe. “We are aware that various citizens have approached the Judicial Complaints Commission with complaints against the DPP. As custodians of public interest and given the importance of matters at hand, the ministry urges the JCC to expedite its consideration of the complaints before it so as not only to afford the learned DPP a platform on which to explain her actions but to also put an end to public speculation over these very important issues.”