Lawyers Object to LAZ Statements; Demand Further Consultation

Last week, a number of lawyers have signalled their opposition to statements issued by the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ), on the grounds that these statements do not reflect the diversity of views held within the legal profession.

This came in the wake of the LAZ’s annual general meeting, held in Livingstone between the 23rd and 25th of April. At the meeting, LAZ President Lungisani Zulu presented a report and financial statement which indicated opposition to the constitutional amendments that the Government is currently pursuing, as well as the Cyber Security Act.

This presentation was followed by an open discussion in which many attendees objected to the statement, claiming that it implied a uniformity of opinion among Zambian lawyers when in actual fact, no such uniformity exists.

One attendee, Eric Sakala, said that “the position they have presented is not everyone’s view but it is being presented as everyone’s view. Some members may feel, is our council affiliated with someone? We are not saying the council should every time consult the membership but there are critical issues [such as] the Constitution and Cyber Security Act [about which] the council should call upon the membership”.

Many lawyers agreed with Mr Sakala. Some even suggested that Zulu’s report did not paint a sufficiently accurate picture of the constitutional amendment process, and was needlessly critical of the Government.

One such lawyer, Macqueen Zaza, said that “when you look at the roadmap released by government regarding the constitutional amendments, it has a lot of milestones that are yet to be achieved. So the council should have tried to consult the membership on how they feel before trashing everything the government had given”.

In response, Mr Zulu insisted that the LAZ committee is consultative, but that it is clearly not practical to consult all members for every report or press release. However, the events at the meeting make plain that the Zambian legal sector is not in unanimous agreement on many political issues.