By Cathy Maulidi:
The Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament Wednesday announced that it would no longer proceed with investigations into the alleged corrupt dealings involving High Court Judge Ken Manda, days after it announced that it had summoned Judicial Service Commission (JSC) members to a hearing.
Announcing the move at a press conference which committee chairperson Peter Dimba held together with members of the committee at Parliament Building in Lilongwe, Dimba said they had arrived at the decision after consulting widely on the issue.
He told journalists that as part of its decision, the committee had asked JSC and the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) to handle the investigations part.
“Section 118 of the Constitution is very clear that the Judicial Service Commission is the one that has the constitutional mandate to recommend the removal of a judge from office to Parliament. Section 119 is also very clear on impeachment procedures in accordance with rules of natural justice.
“Now what are the rules of natural justice? Basically, there are four principles; number one is that the accused should be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard and another one, which is also very crucial, is that the tribunal hearing the case should be impartial. So impartially comes in when you are not conflicted. We, as a committee, realised that we cannot be both prosecutor and judge at the same time and that is why we have yielded the matter to those two institutions,” Dimba said.
He said when the matter is investigated, recommendations would be sent to Parliament and that it would be members of Parliament who, if necessary, would vote on the issue of impeachment of the judge or judges—that is, if the recommendations indicate so.
“So, if we investigate this matter now, we will find ourselves in conflict, where we will be prosecutors as well as the judge. This would be against the rules of natural justice, which give the accused room to be heard and appeal if he [or she] feels so. So we don’t want to create room for loopholes where the accused can appeal our final decision on the ground that he [or she] was not heard,” Dimba said.
Dimba told journalists that members of the committee unanimously consented to the decision of referring the matter to the JSC and MHRC.
Dimba then wondered why the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had not taken any action despite being aware of allegations made by lawyer Alexious Kamangila.
Reacting to the development, Kamangila also wondered why the ACB was not doing anything on the matter of alleged malpractices in the Judiciary.
“My question is, where is ACB? There should be a lifestyle audit immediately. And the Chief Justice should be taken to task… and, further, [there is a need] to seek reputable Sadc [Southern African Development Community] judges and lawyers to investigate Malawi’s Judiciary…,” Kamangila said.
Wednesday, ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala told The Daily Times that the bureau would only speak on the issue when a position has been made.
“For now, let me not comment,” Ndala said.
Over the weekend, Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda told our sister paper, The Sunday Times, that JSC would investigate the matter.
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