.Mambilima

By HELEN ZULU –

CHIEF Justice Ireen Mambilima has urged the judiciary to resolve competition and consumer cases expeditiously taking into account the consequences that delays have on consumers, businesses and the economy as whole.
Justice Mambilima said the delay in resolving and concluding competition and consumer cases had led to businesses and consumers losing confidence in the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) as well as the judicial system in general.
“Some of the competition and consumer cases the CCPC handles end in courts of law, and therefore, there has been an observation that a good number of such cases take long to be concluded. This has led to businesses and consumers losing confidence in the judicial system in general in so far as redressing their complaints is concerned,” she said.
She said in a statement yesterday issued in Lusaka by CCPC public relations officer Hanford Chaaba that some of the competition and consumer cases the Commission handled ended in the courts of law and that a good number of the cases took long to be concluded.
Justice Mambilima described the interface between justice and consumer protection, not only in Zambia but world over, as invaluable adding that the role of the magistrates and judges could not be overemphasised as they were at the centre of dispensing justice in the country.
She said since 1994, Zambia had a competition law which was aimed at promoting fair and competitive markets cutting across all sectors of the economy in line with international best practices.
CCPC board chairperson, Kelvin Bwalya described competition law as a combination of various laws, and implored the judiciary not to look at competition law as contractual, investment, commercial or intellectual property law.
Mr Bwalya said competition law was a combination of various laws, and urged the judges and magistrates to interpret it as such if its benefits were to be realised.
“Historically, we are coming from a socialist command economy where enterprises were run by the state, and when we embraced a liberalised economy and started implementing the Structural Adjustment Programmes, there were a number of pillars which were identified in the
liberalised economy and competition was one of them,” Mr Bwalya said.