Disgraceful conduct of joint task force

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:35:35 +0000

An appeal to reason and rationality is obviously misplaced and out of place.

That is why we are on our knees with a fervent prayer for divine intervention for a strong, independent and impartial judiciary that will save this country.

 We pray that Judges and Magistrates will be strong and steadfast to exercise the dictates of law with their conscience for the collective good of  our society.

We are not advocating judicial activism in politics but are calling on the Judiciary to take notice of the abuse to which state authority has been subjected in diffidence to political dictates.

Our criminal justice system is totally compromised, contaminated and an aberration that is a disgrace to civilized society. People who have stolen more than K14billion by fraudulent misrepresentation are today behind our severely compromised criminal justice system, which can allow the incarceration of people accused much lesser offences.

The Judiciary today is our sole guarantor, savior and our only hope to rescue the nascent and emerging democratic dispensation.

Indeed we salute the various successes that have defeated the powers of avarice, greed, fraud and plunder that for a while threatened to engulf and decimate the island of justice that still stands out as beacon of hope succor and nurture for justice, goodness, morality and  ethical conduct.

 We hope the Judiciary can see the clear abuse of authority in the arrest and subsequent incarceration of Dr. Nevers Mumba which is a disgrace, confirming the politicization and adulteration of our criminal justice system.

Let there be no mistake that those who dig trenches today must prepare to fall in them in the future.

We predicted in our story and it has since come to pass that Dr. Mumba was not only arrested but was for good measure made to suffer incarceration for no discernible reason. There is absolutely no reason why bond could not be extended to Dr. Mumba. The cases he is accused of are all bailable.

What this arrest and incarceration proves is the return of the infamous Task Force of Corruption with its characteristic cruelty, insensitivity and sheer heartless callousness. It was operated by people we have now discovered to be thieves and plunderers who cannot account for Billions of Kwacha siphoned from sequestrated accounts.

They are at liberty today courtesy of political favour; but for how long?

What is happening in our country is an affront to democracy, an assault on the intelligence of the Zambian people which will eventually implode as more evidence of corruption, bribery and sheer abuse of power becomes available.

Zambians do not delight in their leaders political or otherwise being incarcerated at the drop of a hat. These are the same measures that made Dr. Kaunda very unpopular. He took it for granted that his political aspirations equated with the wishes and interests of the Zambian people.

When the time came Dr. Kaunda was soundly defeated, a defeat he still has to accept.

Our politics must attain a level of decency and sophistication which rises above the personal to the substance of issues and debate

We have said time and again that the country is in dire need of a strong, independent and sound judiciary to defeat the brazen abuse of statecraft used to exact retribution on real and perceived enemies.

This arrest  and incarceration does not add to the democratic credentials of this country.  It undermines and actual negates any pretensions to claims of constitutionalism and liberal democratic practice.