Judge will be available Jan 31 for Chaponda’s contempt of court case

High Court Judge John Chirwa will only  be available on  January 31 to hear the contempt of court proceeding for  Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Minister George Chaponda who sneaked to Germany on official duties despite a court order restraining him from conducting official assignments .

Lawyer for the civil society organisations (CSOs), Wesley Mwafyulirwa said Justice Chirwa is based in Blantyre and is relocating to Mzuzu and will be available on January 31, a day he wus also supposed to determine on whether to lift the court order suspending Chaponda or not.

“We filed for contempt of court but Justice Chirwa who has been allocated the case at Mzuzu rehistry of the High Court  is based in Blantyre . He will be back in Mzuzu on January 31 when the court is supposed to deliver a ruling in the application by Attorney General to have the injunction vacated,” Mwafulirwa said.

Mwafulirwa said the the paper work for the contempt of court case for Chaponda is almost complete.

He said other judges in Mzuzu, Justice Dingiswayo Madise and Justice De Gabriel are “handling other cases”.

Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale said in a contempt of court case,  it is an individual who is prosecuted and in this case it will be Chaponda  dragged to court

Law professor Danwood Chirwa who is  based at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said Chaponda must be prosecuted if he is proven to have conducted government business, saying hus  behaviour is “worrying for the rule of law and constitutionalism .”