By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –

THE Lusaka High Court has ordered the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO) to refrain from commencing any criminal proceedings against Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) over matters that are before it.
Judge in charge, Isaac Chali also threw out an application by NWASCO that was asking the court to strike out the legal suit by KCM on grounds that it was an abuse of the court process.
KCM sued NWASCO over its decision to stop it from treating and supplying its own water for use in its mining operations.
It also wanted the court to intervene on threats by NWASCO to arrest and prosecute KCM and its officers if it did not immediately rescinded its decision to supply its own threatened water on grounds that the move was against the Water Supply and Sanitation Act.
But in his ruling, Mr Justice Chali stopped NWASCO from initiating any criminal proceedings against KCM over matters which are the subject of court proceedings until the final determination of all questions before court.
Mr Justice Chali refused to dismiss and strike out the summons by KCM saying the application by KCM can not be said to be an abuse of curt process adding that the application was properly before court.
Due to the serious nature of the threats of arrest and prosecution of KCM, he found it prudent, to invoke the court’s inherent jurisdiction to refrain NWASCO from initiating criminal proceedings against KCM.
After KCM sued NWASCO on November 12, 2014 pursuant to order 18, Rule 19 (1) (d) of the Rules of the Supreme Court of England and section 15 of Water Supply and Sanitation Act number 28 of 1997 filed an application asking the court to dismiss the legal suit on grounds that it was an abuse of the court process.
NWASCO had argued that there was an appeal by KCM to the Government over its decision to deny it a licence to treat its own water as such, the legal suit was an abuse of the court process.
KCM on the other hand argued that the application before court was not for the court to order for the granting of the licence because it does not need a licence for water treating but it seeks to put the threats made by NWASCO to it of arrests.
KCM has alleged that since the commissioning of KCM’s own water treatment plant, NWASCO has used all forms of pressure to compel it to close its treatment plant and procure all its water requirements from Mulonga.