Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:18:10 +0000
It is a total insult and affront to Zambia’s judicial system and a blemish on good governance that Rajan Mahtani’s agent Andrew Kamanga is still operating from Zambezi Portland cement in spite of one Supreme Court and two high court orders nullifying his claim to ownership of the company.
Former Works and Supply minister Mike Mulongoti said such arrogance by businessmen disregarding court orders should be condemned in the strongest manner because currently the State seemed to be protecting people that should be answerable for wilful wrong doing.
He wondered what source of power some people had to show such arrogance before the courts of law.
Mr Mulongoti said what was obtaining at Zambezi demanded stiffer punishment to deter others from disregarding court orders.
“The Judge has the last say. This country is for all Zambians and no one is above the law. It has been said wither to the rule of law and cause no more harm. Do unto others as you want them do unto you.
“The State is mandated to protect all citizens and not individuals that don’t care about the welfare of others. Why should the State protect only one individual? Even the use of police where they are not supposed to be used must be condemned,” he said.
Government he said should explain why some people had the audacity to defy the courts of law and were let scout free while aggrieved parties had no further recourse.
He said this was setting a bad precedence on the judicial system of the country.
He said the State should not misuse the law by protecting people that were found to be breaking the law of the land.
Mr Mulongoti has however advised the business community to desist from using the courts to settle their commercial scores.
“It is a scandal where is this arrogance coming from? Why should court orders be ignored? We need to know what is happening,” he said.
He said this behaviour should be condemned by all well meaning Zambians and urged people to start respecting the law.
The former minister said it was worrying and did not know where Zambia was headed to because people seemed to have usurped the powers of both the judiciary and executive by disobeying court orders with impunity.
Three court orders had so far been defied at the embattled cement company by people who seem to be enjoying maximum support from the authorities.
Last month, Finance Bank chairman Rajani Mahtani with the help of Zambia police defied a court order by Judge Lisimba in Ndola who nullified the appointment of Andrew Kamanga by Dr Mahtani as interim Chief Executive Officer for ZPCL.
And on Friday January 4th 2013 the Lusaka High Court through Judge Chishimba threw out an application by Dr Mahtani for the appointment of a receiver in an act that would give him total control of the company.
