By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA
POST Newspaper proprietor Fred M’membe has applied to be joined to a matter in which Judge Sunday Nkonde petitioned the Constitutional Court alleging that the decision by the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) to reopen a complaint filed against him by the former in 2017 is illegal.
Dr M’membe states that it would be in the interest of justice to join him as a second respondent in the matter in that the outcome of the petition would have an effect on his complaint to JCC.
The Attorney General is cited as the first respondent in the petition.
“That if the intended second respondent is not joined to this suit, his interests in this matter would not be considered and he would be denied an opportunity to be heard on matters whose outcome would have an effect on his complaint,” he said.
Justice Nkonde in his petition alleges that the decision by JCC to rehear Dr M’membe’s complaint dated February 17, 2017, is interfering with the judicial discharge of his functions.
He is seeking determination of the breaches of the constitution by the JCC to reopen the complaint disregarding the ruling by the Kitwe High Court under cause no.2018/ HP/2011.
In 2018, the Kitwe High Court quashed the JCC’s ruling which found the petitioner with a prima facie case for professional misconduct as he presided over the Post Newspaper case stating that it was improperly before it.
He stated that on November 9, 2020, High Court Judge Judith Chawatama rendered a ruling in which she guided that the right route Dr M’membe ought to have taken was to appeal to the Court of Appeal given the nature of the complaint.
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