By Esther Chisola
Lusaka lawyer Makebi Zulu says the judiciary is being raped by the executive noting that the compensation of UPND members is bogus and those being compensated do not deserve to be compensated.
Speaking on Hot FM breakfast show, Zulu accused the UPND and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of having connived to have its members compensated.
He said the judiciary in the country is divided, noting that there are good judges and bad ones.
“If you went to the judiciary and ask the judges that have been there for a long time, they would rather leave because what it is now is not what they imagined it would be. Every judge is timid, every judge is scared now because of the way that they have been treated by the legislature,” he said.
And Zulu said the reason the three constitutional court judges were suspended is because President Hakainde Hichilema is trying so hard to ensure that former president Edgar Lungu is not on the ballot.
“It’s not rocket science that the reason this is being done is to stop the issue of the eligibility case. President Hakainde Hichilema is determined at all cost to ensure that President Edgar Changwa Lungu does not appear on the ballot. That is the scheme of this whole thing,” he said.
He called on the Chief Justice Mumba Malila to resign.
“We have seen the interference with the judiciary during the tenure of President Hichilema and I put the blame on the Chief Justice because he has played a role. He has not seen anything wrong with what the President has wanted to do. As a matter of fact, I call on the Chief Justice to resign because he has failed to secure … the judiciary,” he said.
“It is an intimidation to judges, see how he has made it easy to suspend these judges”.
Zulu said that President Hichilema is a weak individual who has targeted the three suspended judges noting that in 2016, he described them as criminals in wigs.
“I would like to address the President. If he has to hate other people to feel powerful then he is a very weak Individual. These are the ones he had a vandenta against. It’s clear that he had an issue against them,” he said.
Commenting on the rule of law, Zulu said President Hichilema is a hypocrite.
“President Hakainde Hichilema is a hypocrite. What he says is not what he does. The rule of law is only a song to him because he is pandering to western influence. He wants to be seen to be good internationally but he is a bad father at home,” he said.
He accused the President, the speaker of the National Assembly and the Chief Justice of misbehaving in their offices.
“Nelly Mutti is misbehaving at parliament, the Chief Justice is Misbehaving at the Judiciary and HH is misbehaving in the State House. We are now a banana republic,” he said.
Reacting to the lacunas in the constitution of the article 52, he said the article has no lacuna.
“My view is, if President Hakainde Hichilema has a problem with article 52 (6), he can’t interpret the constitution. He needs to go to the constitutional court to get an interpretation. He will find that lies he told this country may make people stay in office for eight or nine years, which in fact is not true at all, they will disagree with him and give him the right position,” he said.
