SAIPAR Board Chairperson Vincent Malambo SC says there’s need to create an environment where people will have no reason to doubt the work of accountability bodies by employing utmost transparency.
Mr Malambo SC, who is also Chairman of the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC), was speaking when he officially opened the SAIPAR-organised Judiciary and Democracy in Africa Conference in Lusaka yesterday.
Mr Malambo SC said he thinks JCC reports need to be made public so that people can know exactly why a particular judge has been disciplined in the manner they are disciplined.
“In the last four years, the Judicial Complaints Commission has produced reports, some have resulted in the withdrawal of the letters patent constituting some individuals as judges. Quite rightly, the Zambian people have had calls to say why only in the last four years? Where was the commission? Why only hear of it now? Why are they terminating so many judges? And that’s a legitimate concern. And this is a complaint I have myself and it is a complaint that rises from what the law currently provides,” he said.
“It is section 144(6), it says the work of the commission must be held confidential. The hearing must be in camera meaning that the reports are not for public consumption, the reports go to the Head of state, the Head of State may or may not act on them, although in our case, it’s obligatory for the Head of State to act in accordance with the recommendations of the JCC. The Head of State has no choice. But ultimately, he’s the one who makes the decision and he’s the one who gets blamed. This secretive nature of the process of holding judges accountable really needs to be looked at seriously and I think that you as researchers need to get to work on things like this and try and propose, argue against any form of secretiveness in holding anybody accountable. The reports must, in my view be made public so the members of the public can know exactly what judge so and so as disciplined in the manner that they were.”
Mr Malambo said once implemented, this enhanced transparency measure would make people trust accountability bodies more.
“The only little silver lining in that is that the judges themselves will have the exact same copy of the report given to the President; word for word. All the documents which are in the report, the judge will have them simultaneously with the President so they know the reason why they’ve been dismissed… some of the judges that have had to go through this process in the last few years have taken their matters to court, in respect of one I know, they produced the report in evidence as they were arguing their case and it went as far as the Constitutional Court and the ConCourt looked at the report and said ‘what is your complaint?’ he said.
He challenged researchers to tackle such topics in order to recommend progressive changes.
“The subject is clear, if researches cared at all, you go to those cases, you find the report, even if they’re not in public domain, but if they’re produced in court, they are in public domain, so be inquisitive, go there and check and I am really trying to dispel, to have an environment where we’ll have no reason to doubt the work of an accountability body and the only way to do it is to have light shed on them, light shed on their work. If we do that we create the legal environment in which to do that, then there will be fewer reasons for complaining,” said Mr Malambo SC.
The Judiciary and Democracy in Africa Conference is being cohosted by SAIPAR and the Access to Justice Research Network (AJRN).
-Southern Africa Institute for Policy and Research