By Patson Chilemba
Justice minister Mulambo Haimbe says it’s too early to talk about reforming the Constitutional Court.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Haimbe said he would work on the key areas of strengthening democracy in the country, as well as looking into the constitutional making process in the medium term.
“On key areas of democracy…we need to walk the talk,” he said.
But asked if the UPND administration would also reform the Constitutional Court, an institution the Republican President Hakainde Hichilema and the new ruling party have had issues with in terms of its operations, as being made up mostly of former president Edgar Lungu’s lackeys, Haimbe said it was too early to talk about that.
Civil rights activist, Brebner Changala once accused President Hichilema of having referred to the Constitutional Court judges as thugs and criminals.
But Haimbe said reforming was something which could only be driven from the highest authorities and that there was no policy directive to look into that.
“As at now all I can say is there is no specific instruction to begin looking into that…clearly that is something that will need to be driven from the highest authority…as I said it’s a little too early to start talking about judicial reforms,” said Haimbe.
The Constitutional Court has never been viewed favorably from a significant portion of the population who have accused most judges on the courts as not having sufficient qualifications to discharge their duties. The court has especially attracted the ire of the public in the manner they handled the 2016 presidential petition and other hot-button issues like their rulings on former president Lungu’s eligibility to stand in the 2021 general elections, among other controversies.
And Haimbe said he wanted to improve sanitation and general cleanliness in Lusaka-Central, including finding ways in regulating waste management, and also in terms of value addition in terms of recycling waste. Haimbe was recently elected as Lusaka-Central (UPND) member of parliament.
