By Esther Chisola
Socialist party leader Dr Fred M’membe has called on the Chief Justice Mumba Malila to intervene in the “confusion” surrounding the seditious practice charge against him.
Speaking shortly after his seditious practice case was adjourned, Dr M’membe said it was clear for everyone to see that there was confusion both from the police and the court on how the seditious practices, hate speech and libel charges were being handled.
“It’s very clear that you know that there is confusion in terms of what direction to take both by the police and by the courts themselves. And when there is confusion, the leadership of the justice system have a duty to give direction. The Chief Justice must step in to give direction. He cannot wash his hand like Pontius Pilate and watch chaos reign. We have had previous experience with situations like this,” he said.
Dr. M’membe called upon Justice Malila to emulate the former Chief Justices who helped in giving direction to certain cases.
“In the 90s, there was a period when there was confusion in the administration of justice concerning freedom of expression mainly to do with libel cases. The Chief Justice then, Matthew Ngulube stepped in to hear a High Court matter. He heard the case between The Post and Micheal Sata to give direction and he gave a very good direction,” he added.
Dr M’membe further wondered why Justice Malila was doing nothing when he had the powers to offer direction.
“Clearly, there is confusion over seditious, over hate speech. The case we have in Kitwe of a pastor being sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for protecting the demolition of a market, taken to prison for inciting violence. That’s crazy. It’s crazy and the Chief Justice cannot just sit and wait and say he has no powers. He has the powers to do something, to give direction. He can pick up some of these cases and hear them himself to set direction,” said Dr M’membe.
In this matter, Dr M’membe pleaded not guilty to a charge of seditious practice contrary to section 57 (1)(c) as read together with section 60(1)(b) of the penal code Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia.
Allegations are that M’membe on July 16, 2024 in Lusaka, published an article on social media namely twitter and Facebook pages that;
“It is very sad that Mr Felix Tshisekedi, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), can no longer hide how he has extended his corruption and other abuses in the Congo DR to the whole region.”
The article went on to state that, “we are worried about these revelations. We are worried that if nothing is done, the bells toiling on the people of the Congo DR will tomorrow toil on us in this region, especially us in Zambia whose proximity to the Congo-DR is much more and whose leadership seem to have an insatiable appetite for dollars, and are also in a hurry to become big millionaires or if possible, billionaires.”
It further stated that if a leader of a country can receive a sum of US$20 million of unearned money as a personal gift from a leader of another country whose people are very poor and the country is in turmoil, and engulfed in an intractable civil war, what does that mean?
It went on to state that, but today, our leaders are stuffing their bank accounts with millions stolen from the poor Congolese people. This is what happens when principles are lost. This is what happens when values are lost. This is what happens when greed reigns supreme.
He further wrote that the likes of Tshisekedi and those he is bribing are not leaders. They are something else but not leaders. But as they say, it is just a matter of time before the chickens come home to roost. Those involved in this evil scheme shall pay the price and regret their greedy actions someday soon.
M’membe finally stated that, “we demand that the Zambian authorities come clean on Mr Tshisekedi’s huge pay out claims”. In order to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the Government as by law established.
