Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
YALI Governance Advisor Isaac Mwanza
The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) says there is urgent need to constitute the Office of the Public Protector to enforce the judgment of the Constitutional Court that former Ministers pay back what they earned.
YALI Governance Advisor Isaac Mwanza, however, says his organization is disappointed that in the first instance, the court refused to grant the application to stop the salaries and allowances paid to the Ministers while it was considering the core issue.
Mr. Mwanza says it must be clear that an order for ministers to pay back salaries and allowances paid to them, and received in good faith would be punitive and unjust to the ministers, who continued to run their offices under advice, in the honest belief that the Constitution allowed them to continue in office.
He says the court’s decision also raises a number of pertinent questions which it ought to have applied its mind to, and should have dealt with such as the decisions made by the ministers during the period of their illegal stay in office.
Mr Mwanza says it is the view of his organization that as the court grows and begins to set a clear course in its work, it must revise its rules to create room allowing for the review of its own decisions, where it is clear that such review is in the interest of justice.
He has since called on former Ministers to respect the decision of the Court by paying back the money as ordered.