Wed, 25 Jan 2017 12:00:50 +0000
A FIGHT against the cartel is not for the faint hearted. It demands tenacity, resilience and great patience supplemented by the truth.
We hope Judge Sunday Nkonde appreciated what he was getting into when he was confronted with the prospect of handling the liquidation of the Post newspaper on account of its fraudulent dealings with the tax revenue.
Yesterday, we reported that Fred M’membe, owner of the Post had written to the Judge in-charge of the commercial court, Judge Siavwapwa, demanding in essence that Judge Nkonde should recuse himself because of his previous association with the Post newspaper over their US$4 million debt, which Finance Bank Chairman Rajan Mahtani wrote off in unexplained circumstances following a nolle prosequi proffered by then Director of Public Prosecution Mutembo Nchito who has since been dismissed for discreditable conduct.
Today Judge Nkonde is again under attack. This time over a letter written to Justice Ireen Mambilima by Dr. Musumali, secretary general of the Rainbow Party, again requesting that Judge Nkonde should recuse himself on account of receiving payment from Tedworth Properties, a matter which the cartel championed against former President Dr. Frederick Chiluba.
The Judge or indeed his firm are reported to have received payment for acting on behalf of Tedworth Properties.
The allegation has the same theme as the US$4 million newspaper claim by Finance Bank which Fred M’membe insists was irregular as no proper instructions were issued. He forgets to mention that Finance Bank was taken over by government and then handed over to Central Bank which ultimately sold the bank to First Rand Bank of South Africa.
Dr. Musumali has now written to the Chief Justice basically seeking Judge Nkonde to recuse himself or be investigated on account of the Tedworth case
It is interesting and instructive that the letter, this time, has been written not to Judge in-charge, Mwiinde Siavwapwa, but Chief Justice Irene Mambilima.
Her ladyship by some sheer coincidence happens to have been on the panel of supreme court judges that determined that Tedworth properties should revert to the state following an appeal from a judgement rendered by Judge Phillip Musonda ordering that the property should be reverted to Tedworth and that an account of the proceeds should be rendered and those responsible for plunder should be prosecuted.
The irony is that the Supreme Court judgement is now subject of a petition questioning its validity and efficacy arising from the fact that the Coram, or the composition of the bench has differed from the signatories of the same judgement.
The lawyers representing Tedworth and the family of Dr. Chiluba want to know how a Supreme Court judge who was not part of the panel could have signed the Judgement.
This is now the Judgement in contention and as feared, it is intended to bring the Chief Justice into disrepute and uproar.
This lapse has not been missed by the cartel which now fully wants to exploit it to undermine the High Court proceedings being presided over by Justice Sunday Nkonde and which proceedings involve the liquidation of the Post newspaper.
The intention is to seek the recusal of Judge Sunday Nkonde whose adjudication in the matter has reached very advanced stages and from all revelations Fred M’membe has been colluding with others not only to evade taxes but now to hide properties which should right now be reposed with the liquidator or indeed should have been reposed with the Zambia Revenue Authority.
The propaganda against Judge Nkonde has one aim, to derail the proceedings before him.
This we find totally intolerable because it will undermine the rule of law. Nobody should be above the law and any attempt to subvert the process must be frowned upon and be dealt with, with the contempt that it deserves.
Driving the judiciary into disrepute is
unacceptable.
