NDC Disgusted By Magistrate Simusamba’s Absence From Court
The National Democratic Congress, NDC, claims it is disgusted by the behaviour of Magistrate David Simusamba with regards to the bench warrant that he issued against the party’s president Dr. Chishimba Kambwili.
“The lawyers Musa Mwenye and Mwitwa Advocates, on Tuesday 25th August 2020, made an application to discharge the bench warrant and magistrate David Simusamba set Friday 28th August 2020 as the day for the hearing,” NDC Spokesperson Saboi Imboela explained in a statement yesterday.
“However, when the lawyers went to court at 08:30hours, magistrate David Simusamba did not show up. The court Marshals called him several times and he did not pick up his phone. All efforts to get a hold of him proved futile until the prosecution and lawyers headed by State Counsel Musa Mwenye decided to leave court at 12:15 hours.”
Principal resident magistrate David Simusamba on Tuesday ordered the opposition leader’s arrest for absconding court in a matter relating to charges of forgery, uttering false document and giving false information to a public officer.
According to his lawyer Emmanuel Kaluba, Dr Kambwili failed to attend court because he was undergoing seven days bed rest after contracting COVID-19. However, magistrate Simusamba cast doubt on his explanation, issuing a bench warrant.
Commenting on the magistrate’s absence on Friday Imboela stated, “We note with sadness that this is not the first time that magistrate Simusamba is behaving like this. He did it to Dr. Nevers Mumba and left for Ndola instead of attending to the warrant he had issued against him and his lawyers Simeza and Sangwa Advocates complained and reported him for his behaviour to the Chief Justice and the Judicial Complaints Authority, but up to now no action has been taken. It is very surprising that he is being tolerated to continue doing this.”
“We call upon the Chief Justice to do something about magistrate Simusamba's behavior. There is no way that one magistrate can continue holding the entire judiciary at ransom,” Imboela continued.
Imboela said that the incident showed that the bench warrant was not done in good faith and called for magistrate Simusamba’s suspension so as to avoid the name of the judiciary falling into disrepute.
Meanwhile, on Thursday the high court in Kabwe ruled that the decision by the Register of Society which was intended and meant to deregister and cancel the certificate of registration for the National Democratic Congress Party was illegal, unreasonable and procedurally improper.
