By Esther Chisola
Chief Justice Mumba Malila says the country should move away from the tendency of being overly protective of nothing, saying justice cannot be dispensed in secret.
And Justice Malila said he had tremendously improved and was doing very well following medical treatment, shortly after his accident in September last year.
Speaking when court reporters paid a courtesy call on him, Malila said once the information was given as it was to the public, it became difficult for them to distort it.
“The moment you appear to be hiding something, people will begin to misinterpret, distort and then you will have a totally different picture projected out there. So, this whole concept of open justice is something that we want to see implemented fully like in the months to come, or the years to come,” he said.
He bemoaned the manner of keeping things secret which were not even supposed to be a secret.
“As things turn out in this country, sometimes, even things that should not be kept secret are always made secret. The problem with the way things are done in Zambia is that even just to change the bulb for the secret service is a secret,” he added. “So, sometimes we tend to be overly protective of nothing, and I think we need to move away from that as a country. Justice especially cannot be dispensed in secret. We know that and so, among the things that we have done as you know is to allow the live broadcasting of proceedings.”
Malila hoped that the media would eventually be allowed to broadcast live proceedings once everything has been put into place.
“Our hope is that eventually; we can report from the courtroom in time. But as we have indicated before, we are still trying to refine just to make sure there are no hiccups and everything works for the benefit of the people that we are serving,” he said.
Judge Malila further cautioned the court reporters to be professional in their reporting, stressing that if they did not do so, they were doing harm to the accused who were presumed innocent until proven guilty.
And commenting on his health, the Chief Justice said he was well and improving tremendously.
“You know, you don’t realise how close to death we come until you are in an accident and then we also don’t realise who your friends are until you are in a misfortune like I did. I must confirm, I’m doing fine. I’m very well,” said Malila. “I had my review the week before last week and the doctor was very impressed that at my age, the bone was forming very quickly. I have done tremendously well and we thank God it would have been worse but here we are still talking. I think it was for a purpose.”
In picture: Chief Justice Mumba Malila posing with court reporters at the Supreme Court yesterday
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