Livingstone resident complains of lapse in justice delivery in magistrates’ court

A petitioner has submitted to the Legal and Justice Sector Reforms Commission that there is a lapse in the delivery of justice in the magistrates’ courts. 

Forty-two-year-old Emmanuel Kangwa submitted that he suffered injustice during his court case that took four years to be disposed of due to adjournments. 

Mr Kangwa told the Justice Chomba-led Commission, which was receiving submissions in the Livingstone Council Chamber today, that there is urgent need to look into delays of court cases arising from adjournments. 

And Mr Kangwa, who was imprisoned for alleged corruption, also submitted that prisoners were denied access to justice in appeal cases due to lack of assistance to help them process court documents while in prison. 

"There is no access to a swift justice system for prisoners to process appeal applications because there is no assistance," said Mr Kangwa. 

He recommended that a law must be put in place to allow for the appointment of a Prisons officer who should be tasked with the responsibility of helping the inmates process their appeal applications. 

And 76-year-old Saxon Simachembele submitted that the process of licensing a liquor business was cumbersome and inconveniencing to the business traders. 

He recommended that a one-stop-shop must be created to ease the licensing process as the current one was time consuming and costly to the traders. 

Meanwhile, a member of the Zambia National Association of the Deaf (ZNAD), Roydah Chilomo, complained that the training provided at the Livingstone Institute for Business Studies (LIBES) restricted the deaf to only two courses. 

Ms Chilomo recommended that the practice was unfair and that labour laws must be revised to respond to the needs of the deaf so that they are not restricted to only being trained in carpentry and tailoring at LIBES.