Petition updateProhibit mining in the Lower Zambezi National ParkHigh Court decision still protects Minister
I​.​P.A. ManningToronto, Canada
18 Nov 2014 — Posted: 18 Nov 2014 05:33 AM PST The High Court yesterday made a written ruling for the case on the Lower Zambezi mine. The ruling covers a technical but important part of the case and effectively leaves in place protection for a Government Minister, from having to give evidence in court. A previous decision in the High Court prevented the calling of witnesses in the case, which most people argue is critical for a fair hearing and for proper consideration of this case. An appeal had been lodged with the Supreme Court, to allow the calling of witnesses in the High Court case. Yesterday the High Court Judge made a decision that the High Court case would not be put on hold to await the decision of the Supreme Court on the calling of witnesses. So the High Court case will proceed for the moment without any calling of witnesses or presentation of new information. The implications of this decision are that the ex-Minister for Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, the Hon. Harry Kalaba, still cannot be called to court. In giving the go-ahead for the mine, the Minister overturned a decision to reject the mine that was made by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) based on technical grounds and considerable expert review. The Minister gave no information to justify his decision to allow the mine to go ahead against the advice of ZEMA, and none of the very valid concerns around the social and environmental impact of the mine have been answered by him or by Zambezi Resources. As identified in the recent Evaluation Report on the mine (see previous post): “Despite a strong legal framework around independent review of projects by independent experts and stakeholders of ZEMA, the process becomes flawed by the ability of a single Minister to undermine the assessment process, without any requirement to share the information that formed the basis of the Minister’s decision.” “The current mining license application process therefore lacks transparency and is open to exploitation” The Supreme Court may over-turn this ruling and allow for calling of witnesses, but timing of that decision and dates for further High Court hearings are not yet known. From savethelowerzambezi.blogspot.com
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