Green Party president Peter Sinkamba says President Edgar Lungu should stop commenting on the liquidation of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) Plc as the matter is still active in the courts of law.

In an interview, Sinkamba said it was important for the courts to be allowed to do their job without any undue influence from external parties.

“First of all, under the issue of KCM liquidation, we think that all stakeholders should refrain from making comments from substantive issues that are before the courts. It doesn’t matter whether the stakeholders are from the Executive, the Legislature or we, the members of the public. I think it will be very important to refrain from making such comments because the matter is active under the courts of law and we are having a situation where there should be no undue influence on the courts,” Sinkamba said.

“We have a lot of committed judicial systems, we don’t think they can be easily swayed, but it will be inappropriate that people start being cited for contempt, of course, we know that the President is immune to that kind of scenario. We don’t want people to think that whatever decision is made, it’s because the President influenced the courts; we don’t want that to happen.”

And Sinkamba said debates that Chinese investors would take-over KCM were premature.

“At the moment, let us not even talk about who is coming to takeover that operation because the decision as whether to liquidate or not to liquidate is a court issue. So, to talk about who is going to take over the operation is premature. Let us wait until that decision is made by the courts, that is when you can look at who is best-suited to take over the operations there, otherwise you talk about Chinese and whoever, I think it is just premature to bring out such things either from government or from we, the members of the public. It is absolutely immaterial to talk about that,” said Sinkamba.