YALI governance advisor Isaac Mwanza says UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema should have waited for the Judicial Complaints Commission to adjudicate his complaint against three Constitutional Court judges before attacking them.

And Mwanza says he is happy that the Threatened State of Emergency has come to an end.

In a statement today, Mwanza observed that HH’s attacks could have stemmed from his frustrations with the manner in which the ConCourt handled the election petition.

“We believe those allegations stem from the frustrations in the manner the Constitutional Court handled the 2016 Presidential Petition. We believe the UPND Presidential Advisor, Mr Douglas Syakalima and other citizens had already reported the judges to the Judicial Complaints Commission who concluded the hearing the matter earlier this year. We therefore believe the UPND should have waited for the outcome of that hearing rather than making those vicious attacks against the judges,” Mwanza stated.

He urged LAZ to demand speedy disposal of judicial complaints.

“YALI believes the Law Association of Zambia should take interest and demand that cases reported to the Judicial Complaints against the Judicial officers are speedily disposed by those tasked to hear them for purposes of protecting judicial integrity such as recent attacks on the judges. The failures by the Commission to speedily dispose reported cases may be frustrating citizens who may unjustly make their own conclusions against Judges as Mr Hichilema did,” Mwanza stated.

And Mwanza stated that his organisation was happy that the Threatened State of Emergency had finally come to an end.

“We believe the situation that had existed and necessitated the declaration of Threatened Emergency had had been brought under control some months back and had Parliament been responsive enough, they should have acted to end the emergency without it coming to its own abrupt end. We are concerned that despite the constitution having tried to open up Parliamentary legislative processes to citizens, the National Assembly has not adapted to new provisions of the law when it failed to hear the petition by Civil Society Organisations who had petitioned for a motion on ending the State of Threatened Emergency,” Mwanza stated.

“We hope Speaker Matibini will next time take the responsibility seriously to inform the House on pending petitions before his office otherwise citizens may lose faith in the National Assembly and fail to respond to the new doors opened for them to engage with Parliament through petitions that are properly submitted as did by some civil society organisations led by Zambia Council for Social Development.”

He also asked President Edgar Lungu to consider using other laws like the anti-terrorism Act, and Public Places and Protected Act, to reinforce protection of public property.

“Going forward, we believe Zambians have the responsibility to protect its installation and places safer even without the State of threatened emergency. Zambian must realise that the public property does not belong to any one person or party in power but must be safely protected for the children’s children future. We ask President Lungu to use other laws such as the antiterrorism Act and Public Places and Protected Act to reinforce protection of these public places,” stated Mwanza.