The Supreme Court has today declared the liquidation of Post Newspaper Limited as illegal but ordered that the process should be restarted in the High Court under a new judge so that the law can be followed.
Chief Justice Mumba Malila heading the panel of judges that heard the appeal, ordered that the Post newspaper liquidator Lewis Mosho be joined to the proceedings and made to account even though he may have finished selling the assets of the defunct newspaper, leading to the process of the liquidation of the newspaper starting afresh in the High Court as the earlier one did not follow the law.
“We refer the matter to the High Court before a different judge to re-open the liquidation proceedings with a view to ensuring compliance with relevant legal provisions,” the page Judgment read.
The liquidator Mosho shall appear before the High Court as a third party to the liquidation case which will be restarted so that he can be heard as he was not part of the case in the Supreme Court.
“We note that much time has passed since the purported liquidation. We do not believe, however, that such passage of the time has sanitized the wrongful manner in which the liquidation was conducted,” the Judges said.
The Chief Justice sat with Judge Albert Wood and Judge Chinyama and noted thus:
“For the avoidance of doubt, we hold that the actions of the liquidator prior to and the post the purported liquidation of the Post Newspaper, are of no legal effect whatsoever”.
The Supreme Court has also ordered Post Newspaper workers who petitioned for the liquidation to pay the legal costs to Fred Mmembe for the appeal.
In 2016, several employees of the newspaper applied for its liquidation at a high court claiming K785,000 in salary arrears. The court action was preceded in June by the closure of the newspaper by the ZRA, over a disputed K54 million tax bill and in weeks after the liquidation claims from various creditors have risen to over k180 million.
The demise of The Post prompted criticism from the opposition as well as Western countries. According to analysts, the then ruling Patriotic Front (PF) government appeared to have taken a disproportionately tough stance on the tax issue the PostNewspaper was facing. There was evidence that the Post Newspaper wanted to pay its debts in installments, but this was rejected by the courts. A perception that more than unsettled tax bills are behind the authorities’ tough stance has been fuelled by the fact that The Post has been one of the fiercest critics of the current and many past governments.
Time to account for the sins and injustices done, the Supreme Court has clearly told off judge Sunday nkonde and he is not fit to be a judge of the High Court as he luck wisdom
Mosho enjoyed a lot under PF. Now he has to pay back all the wealth he acquired as liquidator.
This is were the Bembas say; ‘elo lwanya.’
Musho is still reading the Judgement.??
Looks like court judgements in Zambia will always be aligned to the wishes of the ruling party. In the end the people of Zambia will end up footing the bills for these court decisions. With this decision Mmembe will now go easy on HH. CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY INDEED THE BEAUTIFUL ONES ARE NOT YET BORN.
Our judiciary doesn’t respond to our needs. What will happen to the judge that presided over this illegality? Mosho was appointed by the Court as liquidator
Congratulations to Mmembe although I haven’t understood everything clearly. If I believe that the judge was biased, then the accusations against our courts are genuine.
Did someone stop Lewis Mosho from joining the matter when it was appealed to the Supreme Court? ZRA insisted on the company going into liquidation. Perhaps ZRA should say how much the so-called liquidation has paid what they owed. Why’s the court ignoring the impracticality of what it has ordered? The assets have already been liquidated and various claimants paid to varying degrees. How do u reverse that and start afresh? Not a judgement I was expecting from a panel of judges that included the Chief Justice himself.
mmembe should thank hh for appointing Judge Malila. Judge Woods, good ballys with mmemnbe and Judge Malila a plus. We saw it coming
Hope Lewis Mosho will be really made to account for both Post newspaper assets and huge sums of money. His children in Belgium need to revert to government schools in Zambia. Interestingly, Fred Mmembe is very much alive to testify. It was Milingo Lungu ZCCM liquidator charged with theft of ZCCM funds, now Lewis Mosho – Law studies in Zambia appear to include how to be untrustworthy with deception in society.
To be honest,I was not a big fan of Mmembe in the last few years of this newspaper because he for one single handly created the PF monster with his daily praises of Michael this,Michael that.The monster ended up consuming him….
Also he annointed himself as King maker,using the noble profession of journalism to sort out his enemies,including the current President.How I wish the late Robinson Makayi was still alive,maybe he would now have re-established The Post as a trully independent and investigate newspaper as Makayi and Richard Hall intended it to be…
Maybe The Post should be allowed to RIP…..
Maybe, the president of a certain party will go back to printing
But who’s going to pay for what the Supreme Court has ordered? Assets of the newspaper have largely been sold and very little money remains. Who will be paying the liquidator for doing what the court wants him to do? Judgements should help to bring litigation to a conclusion. If the liquidation was illegal, how does the appointment of the liquidator remain legal? Unfortunately the Supreme Court doesn’t answer the question in its judgement.
This is cooked up. Let legal brains debate otherwise,
I don’t trust this Government – Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.
It is all out to appease and paint the previous administration black.
It’s justice for hire. Some people will dance at an appropriate time.
Some issues are better left alone.
Tulipano!
WHAT HAVE THE PF PUPPETS GOT TO SAY NOW ??
PF SAY SOMETHING
He is married to a mazoka so we knew this case would be overturned. This man failed to pay taxes yet hh sees it fit to instruct courts to overturn judgments. The corruption and tribalism under upnd stinks
Stup!d KZ, you have nerve…. Edgar China Lungu was and probably still is scared sh!tless of uncle Fred…. Now he can pay to restore the printing presses etc. The Lord knows I’m not a big fan of uncle Fred, but he was literally SCREWED by Edgar China Lungu and his horrible thieving cronies. Time to pay up!
The Supreme Court has actually clarified why it has overturned the liquidation of the Post newspaper. Fred M’membe as shareholder and director was never heard by Judge Sunday Nkonde despite being properly petitioned by him. Whn this matter commences in the High Court before another judge, the court will be determining the legality of what Judge Sunday Nkonde did. This is unnecessary as the Supreme Court has already established the illegality of Judge Nkonde’s conduct. Lawyer Lewis Mosho is in an unenviable position.
Razor – Its the taxpayer who will cough up when Memmbe and his staff files claims meanwhile LAZY LUNGU is there enjoying rent free accomodation from a footballer who worked hard. This is why I dont sympathise with PF crooks when ACC is chasing them and quizzing them on their hidden loot.
In fact from today’s judgement, Lewis Mosho is no longer liquidator of The Post newspaper. He’s been ordered to join fresh proceedings in the High Court purely to account for his actions when he was purportedly acting as liquidator. This is where it gets interesting. Mosho was advancing the cause of an illegal act. As a lawyer he also knew and is reasonably expected to hv known or ought to hv known that Fred M’membe had local standing in the liquidation.
Is this a Kangaroo Court decision by the Chief Justice and Mmembe’s good friend Judge Wood. Not sure what these two are up to. What will this achieve? The Post was dismantled, all its properties was sold to retain the taxes it owed ZRA. By the way, the money collected from auctioning The Post properties was still not enough to cover $27m Dollars, The Post owed the Zambia Inland Revenue. {ZRA}
Mmembe’s arrogance not to pay taxes for years, when he was making huge profits, that he pumped into starting Zambian Airways, invited the downfall of his Media Empire. He is lucky T-Bone-Steak, because he should have been sent to jail to be chewed by inmates for a long time. From here, Mmembe will cry looking for national sympathy, when he tried every trick to…
Hh doesn’t respect our tax system that is why he has overturned this decision. Hh and the imperialists sleep in the same bed. So they now have their chola boy as president who will ensure they siphone all profits from our minerals without paying any taxes. Evil regime
Zambian judges awe mwe! If Lungu had won the previous elections this jedgement was going to be very different. We dont have judges in court. We have Chickens..
I don’t think even the CJ himself understands what his Judgement means.
How do you “undo” what has already been done?
Company assets have already been sold and creditors paid.
Instead of compensation, if the process was wrong, he orders a retrial, for what purpose? Academic exercise?
The liquidator was authorized by the trial judge to go ahead and liquidate the post newspaper, which by the way, was insolvent. So what can you do to him? Absolutely nothing!
Ba CJ, apa peve monga mwaitaya!
Can you ressurect a dead and buried person?This is the example of this case.
Stop criticising the Supreme Court if u hv not read and re-read the judgement. The judges have not ordered any compensation to Fred M’membe because that was not the question they were called upon to adjudicate. The judges were asked to rule if judge Sunday Nkonde was in order not to hear Fred M’membe. And they hv ruled that M’membe should hv been heard. The judges hv not said that M’membe was on firm ground to oppose the liquidation of the newspaper.
So this case goes back to the drawing board! Nothing to celebrate yet, that court may uphold the liquidation even after hearing from M’member. Think many people haven’t understood the meaning of this judgment.
#17 Tarino Orange… unfortunately you are right…. the judge acted on behalf of the republic, so the republic which us will pay.
…#26 That is if there will be anythig to pay.
PF lawyer and criminal Lewis Mosho fired lawyers representing Mmembe and replaced them with lawyers his own firm.
So you had Mosho the liquidator negotiating with his own firm during the sale of the posts assets.
That is fraudulent.
This is what happens when courts are used to fight political and personal battles. The closure of The Post Newspapers was politically motivated and this latest judgment is likely politically motivated and the loser is the tax payer. Completely lost hope in this country, we just seem not to be capable of governing ourselves. Politics permeates every fabric of society, which is a shame!
judicial academics, a dead matter resurrected by good friends and commrades , so this issue is directly hitting back to judge nkonde whom we heard had issues with the owners of the defunct firm the post.
musho has no case here,
how things are unfolding in this country very silly indeed.
H ow some hardworking lady justices were left out to succeed the late judge mambilima is also puzzling, some have worked for decades hoping they could succed thier fellow woman, but end going backwards to men who have held that office for years
sad indeed we are not interested in this case a dead and burried issue
Bunch of cowards! they make decisions based on who is linning their pockets rather than conviction. Maule ya money imwe.
I dont see any sense in any of you opposing this case to be relooked at… fred to be honest was unfairly treated thats not the kind of way you unleash your anger on your critic..his stuff was auctioned at give away when in actual sense they costed millions??
@Jigga… very good observation .