Judge Siavwapa faces legal suit

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 14:02:02 +0000

By NATION REPORTER

A PRIVATE citizen has decided to drag High Court Judge in-charge Commercial Court Mwiinde Siavwapwa to court for allegedly rendering legal advice to former Post Newspaper (in liquidation) proprietor Fred M’membe over the liquidation of the newspaper.

Edwin Lifwekelo is to commence criminal prosecution against Judge Siavwapa in the courts of law following the inability by the Judicial Complaints Authority (JCA) to deal with his complaint of misconduct against the Judge.

Mr Lifwekelo has announced that Judge Siavwapa could face private criminal prosecution for alleged misconduct for having rendered legal advice to Mr M’membe.

Speaking at a press briefing, Mr. Lufwekelo said he had lodged a complaint against Judge Siavwapa for misconduct to the Judicial Complaints Authority (JCA) and had responded that the matter would be looked into.

He said there were many complaints that had been taken to the

Judicial Complaints Authority and that none of them had been acted upon.

Mr Lifwekelo said he had decided to take legal action against Judge Siavwapa for allegedly rendering legal advice to Mr M’membe over the liquidation of the Post Newspaper because of abnormal delays in the authority to deal with his complaint

“We do not want to wait for what the Judicial Complaints Authority will say because we have enough evidence to prosecute the case. We have engaged private lawyers to have this matter rested,” Mr Lifwekelo said.

He explained that his decision to commence with criminal proceedings using private prosecutors was because the Judicial Complaints Commission was not active.

He said writing to the Judicial Complaints Authority was like a judicial exercise in futility, adding that people that worked at the commission were incompetent and could not bring out desired results.

He said he wanted to set a precedence where when citizens were aggrieved by a judge, they could take the matter to the courts of law and receive justice.

“We are going with this matter all the way for the first time in Zambia. If you have never seen a judge being arrested for misconduct, we want to use Judge Siavwapwa as a deterrent measure so that others doing the same should stop,” he said.

He said with private prosecutors he hoped it reached the matter to its logical conclusion.

“We have evidence and we are not starting these proceedings without evidence, we have exhibits and we are there when things are happening in these offices, “he said.

He appealed to the Chief Justice, Irene Mambilima to be attentive to the behavior of judges.

“I appeal to the Chief Justice to be alert and attentive to the behaviour of these judges, some of these matters could be solved by her administratively,” he said.