By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
THE Lusaka High Court has disjoined from the defamation proceedings President Edgar Lungu and PF secretary general Davies Chama in the matter in which UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema had sued the two with Bishop Edward Chomba.
The courts said the action against Mr Lungu and Mr Chama was ill fated and was bound to fail.
Mr Hichilema had sued Mr Lungu, Mr Chama and ex-communicated Orthodox Church Bishop Chomba for defamation of character over remarks made by the Bishop at a rally in Kabwe during the January 20, 2015 presidential election campaigns.
Mr Chama later applied for a misjoinder, saying they were wrongly sued by Mr Hichilema because they did not utter the alleged defamatory words.
Lusaka High Court Judge Mwila Chitabo said in his ruling yesterday that the pleadings by Mr Hichilema have demonstrated that Mr Lungu and Mr Chama neither uttered nor published the defamatory material rightly attributed to Bishop Chomba.
Mr Justice Chitabo said he had no difficulty to hold that there is no cause of action against Mr Lungu and Mr Chama because they were wrongly joined to the proceedings.
“The first and second defendants’ application to be disjoined from these proceedings succeeds with the attending costs to be borne by the plaintiff to be paid to the first and second defendants,” he said.
Mr Justice Chitabo discharged the interim injunction which was granted on December 24, 2014 and was made interlocutory on January 9, 2015 as it affected Mr Lungu and Mr Chama with costs to Mr Hichilema.
Mr Lungu and Mr Chama had asked the court to disjoin them from the proceedings because they did not utter the words but merely shared a podium with Bishop Chomba.
Mr Chama had made a public apology and distanced himself and Mr Lungu from Bishop Chomba’s words against Mr Hichilema.
Meanwhile a matter in which former Justice minister Wynter Kabimba and The Post newspaper editor in-chief Fred M’membe have been sued for contempt of court by former Republican president Rupiah Banda yesterday failed to take off.
The matter failed to take off because Mr M’membe’s lawyer Nchima Nchito was attending to another matter in the High Court.
Lusaka Principal Magistrate Kenneth Mulife who is presiding over the matter adjourned the case to Tuesday during which the two are expected to take plea.