Help bring change – Chibesakunda

ACTING Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda has called on the Legal and Judicial Reforms Commission to help bring change in the administration of justice in Zambia.
The 20-member commission appointed by President Michael Sata on January 24, 2014 comprises professionals from different walks of life.
It is headed by former Supreme Court judge Frederick Chomba with Solicitor General Musa Mwenye as the vice-chairperson. Maria Kawimbe is the secretary.
Other members include Director of Public Prosecutions Mutembo Nchito, Transparency International Zambia president Lee Habasonda, former Women for Change executive director Emily Sikazwe, Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education executive director Enock Mulembe, and acting Legal Aid Board executive director Anderson Ngulube.
Ms Justice Chibesakunda said when she swore in the commission at the High Court in Lusaka yesterday that the commissioners owed it to Zambians to bring about change in the administration of justice.
She urged the members to scrutinise the judicial and legal systems to find out whether they were responding to the country’s political, economic and social needs.
“If our judicial and legal systems have not responded to Zambia’s needs, the commission has to bring about change for efficient and effective administration of justice,” Ms Justice Chibesakunda said.
She reminded the members that the oath they had taken came with great responsibility, and that a lot of people in the country were hopeful of good reforms from the commission.
She said the appointment of the commission had rekindled the expectations of the public to overhaul the administration of justice.
“It is sad that even past 50 years of our independence, we still have a replica of the English law structure and yet out history and our culture are different from that of England,” she said.
Ms Justice Chibesakunda said judicial reforms had been the catch phrase in the Zambian media for the past four years while some quarters had personalised it.
She said that what had not been discussed in the media was the need for legal forms because the two were not interchangeable concepts, but sister concepts which went hand-in-hand.
The commission secretary Ms Kawimbe later said in an interview that the members would next week hold an inaugural meeting to set the roadmap for its sittings.