KBF Leads PF’s Campaign To Remove LAZ Leadership

KELVIN Bwalya Fube says the Law Association of Zambia executive committee led by Linda Kasonde is immature, excited and should not be tolerated by the members.

Speaking during Hot FM’s Red Hot programme today, KBF, a staunch PF member, claimed that if Kasonde’s executive continued, most Zambians would lose confidence in the law profession.
There was a similar division in LAZ in March, 1999, when the council comprising of Christopher Mundia, Edgar Lungu, the current Republican President, Michael Musonda, Mumba Malila, Charles Kajimanga and Winnie Sithole Mwenda, invited then UPND leader Anderson Mazoka to address their annual ball.

When the invitation sparked division among members, the LAZ council headed by George Kunda defended the decision saying government private dignitaries had also graced past occasions.
“Are we not fair then to invite the president of an upcoming opposition party? Why shouldn’t we invite the opposition? Some of our members have been asking, ‘why invite Mazoka?’ The council of our association decided to invite you Mr President (Mazoka) because we feel that we can share some ideas on the governance, development and future of our country just as we have done with government dignitaries,” said Kaunda, according to a Times of Zambia report of March 29, 1999.

And now, KBF with other PF inclined lawyers, have pushed a vote of no confidence in the entire LAZ executive which will be considered at the extraordinary AGM called for tomorrow on claims that it was biased.
“It is this attitude of ‘I know it all’ and immaturity; maybe they are excited. When people are young and you give them power, they think they can bully people around. Some of us are saying no, we have been here too long and we refuse to be bullied. As far as I can remember, I have never seen a LAZ executive moved for impeachment or a vote of no confidence.

We have had so many LAZ presidents and they have led their executives with dignity and none of them was ever moved with a vote of no confidence. We are not mad to just say that we are going to move a motion of no confidence. We have seen things with evidence. We have been trying to communicate with the executive, we have tried to give them advice but they are not listening,” KBF claimed.

“As LAZ, we cannot achieve anything if we are not working with the government of the day. But I am not saying we should be bootlickers. LAZ is failing to remain neutral, to be objective in its handling of important national issues. It is failing miserably. This decision is not political. The Linda Kasonde-led executive is not indispensible. I believe there are men and women in the association, strong, mature enough to lead the association without controversy to maintain neutrality that’s required. Whether the motion succeeds or not, there are consequences and what we are saying is that if we get rid of this executive with this vote of no confidence, then the politicians are saying that they will pull out this societies bill and take that motion to the floor [of Parliament]. If that bill passes, they will destroy LAZ into fragments. The confusion that will come from there is what I am fearing.”

He charged that the current LAZ leadership was immature.

“It’s been very difficult. The problem has been, I think for the Linda Kasonde led executive, especially Linda herself who has been the first female LAZ president…we have seen very immature type of leadership, especially to some of us who have stayed in the association long enough. The problem we have is that the association leadership is trying to do the right thing using the wrong method. And by that I mean, you can’t justify what you are doing by claiming that what you are doing is right even if you use the wrong method,” KBF said.

“If you use the right method, you will get the right answers. But in this case, we are obviously faced with a leadership crisis. In the Law Association of Zambia, we have very strong women, for example, we had a Mrs Chibiya who had risen to become SADC lawyers Association president. We have women in LAZ who are strong-willed. I believe Linda is one of them. We have given Linda all the respect and all the time to prove her leadership but the problem is that she has failed. She is leading the association on a very dangerous path, on collision with the government.”

He said there was need for people to know that there was nothing that LAZ could do without the involvement of the government because the association was created by statute.
Asked by the presenter if LAZ was supposed to toe the line of government, KBF said: “No, to the contrary. We are advisors. We are in the middle. If there are differences of opinion in the public sector, in the political realm, LAZ must come in the neutral and tell the sides that are warring what the law says and stick to that. LAZ has been taking a side and that is where some of us are saying that is not our role and we have been misunderstood. It doesn’t mean that because I have a political position, then I can’t advise. No! It simply means that if I have a political position I must maintain neutrality and act professionally. There are many examples that I can quote where the association has gone wrong.”

He said last year during the presidential petition, the case in the Constitutional Court was supposed be determined within 14 days, but after the 14 days had elapsed, LAZ issued a statement that the UPND should have been heard, thereby throwing a challenge to the judiciary which was interpreting the law.
He said on the issue of the referendum, without consulting members, LAZ took a position that lawyers should vote “no”.

“For us as LAZ, our history is that when a question of a legal nature that has two parties divided or that has the nation divided come to the fore, LAZ calls for an AGM so that the executive gets its mandate before it speaks. When you speak and expect the members to come and ratify your actions after the fact, we are saying no. That is not how we operate. There has been lack of consultation many times. The association, right now, is being run primarily by three or four people. For some of us who have been in LAZ for some time, we are able to see that they are doing things contrary to what we believe in. For example, how do you explain the streaming live of a UPND press conference via the LAZ Facebook, who does that?” KBF said of an incidence where a journalist aligned to the UPND streamed live a LAZ press conference on the UPND Facebook page.

“I am a member of LAZ but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I am going to accept that and if I speak against it, don’t tell me that it is because I am political, no! I am simply saying this is wrong.”

He said when opposition UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, outside court, ‘insulted’ judges, LAZ did not react when all the judges were lawyers by training.

“These are just examples. Take The Post newspapers for example, it was found guilty by the Supreme Court of ‘tax evasion’, and the court said ‘you must pay your taxes’. Because of a certain position that LAZ took without consulting the members, they wanted to say they were fighting for constitutional rights. What Constitutional rights? A person who is not paying his taxes has got rights? I beg to differ. As far as I am concerned, you cannot benefit from an illegality. When the courts say you are wrong, we as LAZ have no right to go and start attacking the judiciary. We (LAZ) stand up and say The Post cannot be liquidated, why?What’s so special about The Post? This is an argument which is not even tenable to any basic lawyer,” KBF said.

“We as LAZ, the Linda executive, wanted to join this action in court. The president swore an affidavit alleging that judge Sunday Nkonde was biased, compromised, insulting the judiciary with no evidence [LAZ applied to be joined to the Post liquidation case as a friend of the court to observe the proceedings following the issues that have been raised in the media and the court is yet to rule on the application]. Who speaks like that? Who are you representing? We are lawyers for God’s sake and our job is to protect and defend the judiciary, not insult it. In any case, wasn’t there a better way of asking those questions? Was the door to the Chief Justice closed? I don’t think so but I know from practice that the president of LAZ has access to the Chief Justice. If we were concerned, we should have taken that route. Not joining a fight we do not understand and use the name of the association by claiming you are fighting for human rights. Whose human rights? Do human rights only matter when dealing with special people, special companies? What about a woman in Kanyama, Shan’gombo…?”

He said what was happening in LAZ could not be tolerated anymore.

“We, who are moving this motion, are saying this can’t go on. We talk to people in the association and people must not misunderstand me of having a personal matter with Linda, no! She is my young sister. Personally I have no problem with her. I have a problem with the direction she is taking the association. What we are saying is that it’s like some people are above the law and cannot be touched. You cannot have a situation where when Hichilema insults judges, you keep quiet but when Amos Chanda tries to say something about the judiciary in his own way, you attack him, no. State counsel Nchima Nchito has got a case in court, Fred M’membe has a case in court, not on taxes, another case. The sister to Nchima Nchito is the secretary to LAZ. They (LAZ executive) decide to have a meeting to appoint lawyers for these two people. They appoint state counsel Musa Mwenye, to represent them. Musa Mwenye is a partner in the firm where the vice-president of LAZ is,” KBF said.

“Is this job for the boys? If it were politicians, we would have said it is corruption. Because it is LAZ, we the members should keep quiet? No! Yes, they will argue it is pro-bono, it can’t be pro-bono when you have the president sitting in a court room. Whose time is that because I know Linda Kasonde is on leave professionally. She is not working. She is running the association. So who is paying her? I am here to announce that I am standing up, as the boys and girls in the streets say harsh tag, LAZ matters. LAZ matters to a lot of people but the respect that has been given to LAZ is slowly being eroded because of maladministration, lack of leadership, immaturity in the approach to things.”

He said LAZ members have had some differences in the past but that the association had always managed to resolve the issues. KBF said he had no interest in running for the position of LAZ president.He said the current LAZ executive was fighting for its life to ensure that the motion fails.

Fube said Kasonde and her executive were feeling the heat and were fighting for survival.