By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
The Subordinate Court Act, Chapter 28 of the Laws of Zambia is very clear with regards to the jurisdiction of the Magistrate. The Magistrate only has jurisdiction in the district where the offence was allegedly committed.
My dear brother, Whitney Mulobela has argued that in the era of social-media, such a crime can be regarded as has been committed in every district of Zambia.
Offcourse this is far from the Truth, like in the past era of Radio, TV and Newspapers, the platform of social-media or cyberspace is but a mere platform or medium in which the alleged crime has been communicated.
To transport suspects to areas where you wish to deliberately apply psychological torture and deprive them of support from their families and lawyers, is inhuman.
At its worst form, the One-Party State dictatorship inflicted similar pain and applied inhuman tactics of both physical and psychological torture to political opponents. We saw Chiluba detained in Livingstone and Chitalu Sampa in Kabompo districts.
I have also seen the irrational and dangerous appeals made to President Hichilema by the likes of Sesheke MP, Romeo Kang’ombe and Seer 1, that he must resort to dictatorship in order to rule “properly”.
No Mr. President, we are a Democracy. We chose the path of Rule of Law and respect for separation of powers. We rejected any form of dictatorship or it’s tendencies as was displayed under the rule of Kenneth Kaunda. We rejected the excesses of the Police or similar state apparatus.
And that’s the path we chose as a people.
This and other rising humiliating practices only dents the democratic credentials of President Hichilema’ government. He doesn’t need this at the time his government is seeking financial support from the International Monetary Fund, when he is seeking debt relief from international creditors and has invited international investors to invest in Zambia.
