Fired magistrate files witness statement against his dismissal
By Staff Reporter
A DISMISSED Kalomo magistrate has filed a witness statement in a petition he lodged in the Constitutional Court, stating that the decision to dismiss him is unconstitutional, illegal, the worst intimidation and victimization of him as a judicial officer.
This is in a petition in which Besa Mutale sued the Attorney General, challenging the decision of the Judicial Service
Commission (JSC) to dismiss him from employment on allegations of going to work drunk and drinking while on duty.
Mutale has argued that the judiciary management that dismissed him has no role to play, save only as a complainant and when the recommendation is made against any juridical officer and in this case, him who is a
magistrate, that recommendation goes to the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) via the registrar.
He stated that what the judiciary management had been doing is just abuse of office because they are aware that he had not done anything wrong.
According to the witness statement filed in court, Mutale stated that he was not afforded an opportunity to be heard
either by the JCC or the JSC before he was dismissed from employment on allegations of being drunk on duty.
He submitted that he wrote the Judicial Service Commission appealing against his dismissal on the premise that he was not afforded an opportunity to be heard as he was not heard from the very first time he was suspended up to the time of his dismissal.
Mutale stated that he had not been informed of any complaint by the JCC from the judiciary or any other person or body as mandated by law, neither was he heard by the Commission for it to have made recommendations for any disciplinary action to be taken against him.
He stated that as far as he was concerned, there could not be any disciplinary proceedings against any judicial officers in the absence of the recommendation of such disciplinary proceedings by the JCC.
Mutale stated that the judiciary management in this matter were the complainants and therefore the only role they can play is to complain to the JCC.
