By NATION REPORTER
EMMANUEL Mwamba has proposed the reinstatement of constitutional provisions which once prescribed stringent but fair mechanisms, such as tribunals for both the appointment and removal of judges.
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Mr Mwamba, Zambia’s former Ambassador to Ethiopia says constitutional provisions such as the setting up of a tribunal which was removed from the 2019 amended Constitution should be reinstated to avoid the temptation of the President from arbitrary dismissing judges as if they were daily classified employees.
Mr Mwamba is worried that failure to bring back into the Constitution provisions that would protect the tenure of office for the Judges would have far reaching consequences because the judiciary was the arm of government that held the State together.
He said a weak judiciary often promoted anarchy, social disorder and failed to resolve conflicts and apart from presenting negative effects on the state of the economy and crime levels.
“Stakeholders must recognise that we need to restore constitutional protection of judges by reinstating provisions that require stringent but fair mechanisms for both their appointments and removal,” Mr Mwamba said.
Mr Mwamba explained that the provisions of removing security of tenure of judges by articles that simplified both the appointment and the removal of Judges would haunt the country forever and threaten the well-being of the State if not corrected.
He said the removal of judges as if they are casual daily employees is but an attack on the judiciary and is threatening the well-being of the State, Emmanuel Mwamba has observed.
Mr Mwamba said when former President Edgar Lungu signed into law a popularly adopted Constitution, the was gripped with both jubilation and fears and that some of the fears are now being experienced.
Mr Mwamba said Zambians celebrated the extensive amendments to the Constitution which included progressive articles such as the provision of the date of general elections, the grade 12 qualification requirements for lawmakers and the protection of former Presidents from politically engineered prosecution
He explained that the provision of dual citizenship, removal of a by-election in the event the President died, the creation of the Constitutional Court and Appeals Court and the provision of the 50 percent plus one majority vote for the election of a Republican President were among the best inclusions in the Constitution.
Mr Mwamba in his write-up entitled; “Attacks on judiciary is an erosion of the state,” stated that as the last bastion of truth and Justice, an independent Judiciary usually prevented the collapse of the State or the reign of anarchy.
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