By Esther Chisola
The Constitutional Court has accepted constitutional lawyer and State Counsel John Sangwa’s application to join the proceedings in the Edgar Lungu eligibility case as a friend of the court.
A friend of the court means that Sangwa will be able to help the court in arriving at the decision in this matter by contributing to the proceedings before the court.
However, this s does not mean he is a friend of the respondent or the petitioner in this matter. Sangwa has been allowed on account that he has an understanding of the legal matters involved in this case.
Sangwa had asked the Constitutional Court to join him in the case in which a youth activist Michelo Chizombe is questioning former president Edgar Lungu’s eligibility to contest the 2021 general election and future elections after being sworn into the office of President twice.
Chizombe has cited Lungu, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) and the Attorney General as respondents.
According to the summons for an order to appeal filed, Sangwa wanted to be joined to the matter as a friend of the court.
And in his affidavit filed, he stated that he had the requisite knowledge and experience to appear as a friend of the Court in this matter.
“After my admission to the bar, I focused mainly on handling constitutional law and administrative law cases; and also taught constitutional law and administrative law at the University of Zambia, School of Law from 1990 to 2010,” he stated.
At the last sitting in the matter, Lungu raised a preliminary issue asking the Court to throw out the case on reasons that it was res judicata (already decided upon) and an abuse of Court process.
And Justice Mudford Zachariah Mwandenga dismissed Lungu’s application and sent the matter to a single judge for hearing.
