People’s Alliance for Change leader Andyford Banda has advised the Patriotic Front to ensure that they do not destroy any institution especially the judiciary saying they will be running to the same institutions when out of power.

And Banda says Zambia has a lot to learn from the South African judiciary which ensured the invalidation of that country’s National Prosecuting Authority director Shaun Abrahams for being illigall .

Meanwhile Banda says the Kasenengwa by-election campaigns are going well and his party has a lot of confidence of winning the seat.

Recently the South African Constitutional Court found that the appointment of National Prosecuting Authority boss Shaun Abrahams was unconstitutional and invalid.

Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga said former president Jacob Zuma’s decision to terminate Abraham’s predecessor, Mxolisi Nxasana’s position as the National Director of Public Prosecutions, was an abuse of power and that Abrahams was a beneficiary of that abuse thus his appointment was unconstitutional as well.

Commenting on the development in an interview with News Diggers! Banda said Zambia had a lot to learn from South Africa.

He observed that the South African judiciary had demonstrated that it was independent of any political interference.

“I think as a country we have a lot of things to learn from South Africa. The South African judiciary has really demonstrated that it is independent of any political interference. And we have seen a number of cases that have been brought to court by the opposition, going through. And we can refer this to the recent ruling by the Constitutional Court of South Africa to invalidate the appointment of Shaun Abrahams as National Prosecuting Authority director. There is a lot that we can learn. You will find that the Constitutional Court was categorically clear that President Zuma abused authority when he terminated the former NPA boss,” he said.

Banda advised the Patriotic Front to ensure that they do not destroy any institution especially the judiciary, warning that they would need it.

“We have a similar situation in Zambia where former director Mutembo Nchito’s contract was terminated which in some instances could have been seen that it was a political move. But when you have an independent judiciary, you will find that even when such things happen, you will have a place to run to. And my advice is that those that are in authority, the PF, they need to make sure that they do not destroy any institution especially the judiciary because these are the same institutions that they will be running to when they are out of power,” he said.

“These are the same institutions that they would want to save them when they are out of power. So it’s important that when you are in power you do not destroy institutions, you do not abuse the authority because when you are out of authority you will find that the same institutions that you have been destroying are the ones that should save you. So this ruling of terminating Shaun Abraham’s contract by the Constitutional Court of South Africa is a great stamp on the South African judiciary. We hope that the Zambian judicial system can learn something from what South Africa is doing.”

Meanwhile Banda said campaigns for the Kasenengwa by-elections were going well and they had a lot of confidence as a party.

He noted that PF had lost a lot of supporters as could be seen from voter apathy.

“The campaigns for Kasenengwa by-elections are going well. So far we are pushing and we have a lot of confidence. If you look at the recent by-elections, you will notice that the PF have lost a lot of supporters. Even just the recent council chairperson elections in Kasenengwa, you will find that only 14 percent of people voted. So our job is to device new plans of ensuring that we entice a lot of people to vote. We give them a message, we give them a reason that they should stand up and vote. But we are very confident that those who are not voting, if they were to stand up and vote, they wouldn’t vote for PF,” he said.

Banda further noted that traditional methods of campaigning were no longer working because if they were working, a lot of people would stand up to vote.

“Also what this shows is that traditional methods of campaigning are not working because if they were working, a lot of people would stand up to vote. There’s a lot of voter apathy in recent elections and yet we still continue to use the same methods of campaigning. So what we have done as PAC is to device a new plan of campaigning to ensure that we can bring a number of voters on board in the Kasenengwa by-election. Once people just stand up, once people make a commitment to go and vote, I think we are confident that we will scoop the seat. Otherwise we will do our best and we will live the rest to God,” said Banda.