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Government has said that the Courts of law are entering into settlement agreements with people who have sued the state in order to find a win-win situation.
Some ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) members have sued the State, demanding compensation for the trauma they went through during the Patriotic Front (PF) administration.
Among those that sued the State, is Transport and Logistics Minister, Frank Tayali, who had been awarded a sum of K450,000 by the Courts of Law on Monday, 27, 2023, a move that had been described as day light robbery from the Treasury.
In another case, Attorney-General, Kabesha Mulilo, entered a consent judgement to pay K350,000 each plus K150,000 as legal fees to four UPND members who were allegedly beaten by Kaizer Zulu, the former Special Advisor for Politics to president Edgar Lungu.
During a media briefing in Lusaka on Tuesday, Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, noted that Tayali would have even been awarded a huge amount beyond K450, 000 if such a decision was not made.
“These are decisions that are being entered into between three parties namely the applicant, the State and the Judiciary to come up with consent judgement and create a win-win situation,” Mweetwa said.
He explained that parties to a court matter are entering consent judgement to create a win-win situation to avoid incurring more costs on both ends such as legal costs.
“If you went with some of these matters which are before the courts of law, the court could have paid Tayali K5 million or more given the circumstances that he was gun pointed at a time when two others were shot and he was thinking am I next,” Mweetwa narrated.
Read More: Minister Tayali awarded K450,000 for aggravated assault by police officer
He emphasized that it was just because these were politically exposed person’s, otherwise there are alot of citizens who are getting similar compensations but it’s not blown out in the media.
Mweetwa cited a recent case in which Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa sued one of the media houses demanding for payment of K20 million for defamation and the court can decide to pay that amount or more.
“If honourable Miles Sampa gets compensation of K20 million or K10 million by the courts, who is going to say that’s a lot of money, no but if it’s government compensating then you hear day light robbery, day right robbery,” he said.
Mweetwa stated that these were not Kangaroo agreement but a law being followed by the Attorney-General and that Tayali took the matter in an individual capacity and not Minister.
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