LAZ SLAMS HIGH COURT FRACAS
By SIMON MUNTEMBA
THE Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) is dismayed with the resurgence of violence and has condemned the fracas at the Lusaka High Court last Friday, during which Patriotic Front Mandevu Member of Parliament, Christopher Shakafuswa and his witnesses were viciously attacked by suspected UPND cadres.
LAZ has asked political parties to stop the violence by taming their cadres.
“It breaks our hearts to note that a few weeks after President Hakainde Hichilema declared that his administration shall not condone lawlessness in the name of caderism, political cadres caused mayhem at the Lusaka High Court,” LAZ president Abyudi Shonga said.
Mr Shonga condemned the fracas that occurred at the Lusaka High Court on Friday last week when UPND cadres attacked Mr Shakafuswa and his sympathisers.
In an interview, Mr Shonga said the Association was dismayed that violence erupted at the Lusaka High Court premises a few weeks after pronouncements by the Head of State that the new dawn Government would not tolerate hooliganism from political cadres.
He said violence had no place in a modern democratic country like Zambia, regardless of who was perpetrating it.
“Our comment as LAZ is that we have been very consistent over the years on caderism, more especially this last year which saw unprecedented violence in the run up to the general elections. We have been very categorical that violence has no place in a modern democratic country like Zambia.
“It breaks our hearts to see violence erupting so soon after the pronouncements by the President that the new Government will not tolerate lawlessness in the name of caderism,” Mr Shonga said.
He urged political party leaders to tame their cadres against violence for the sake of peace in the nation.
“As LAZ, we categorically condemn any act of violence regardless of where it is coming from. And it is our view that this barbaric behaviour by cadres should be managed very well by all political players. Political leaders must keep their cadres in check so that things like this should not continue happening in Zambia,” MrShonga said.
Meanwhile, the police are still probing the fracas that occurred at the Lusaka High Court on Friday.
Police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga said they had instituted investigations into the matter to establish what exactly happened before making an official statement.
And the Judiciary has threatened to ban persons other than accredited witnesses from attending any hearings or entering the courts’ premises if parties to election petitions fail to control their sympathisers.
Judiciary spokesperson Kalumba Chisambisha-Slavin said following the fracas, all entrances to the Judiciary premises would be manned by armed police officers and that all visitors would be subjected to thorough screening.
