Attorney General (AG) Jane Ansah risks being in contempt of court in the case in which Malawi’s former ambassador to Japan Dr John Chikago sued the government for unlawful dismissal.
This comes after the Industrial Relations Court overturned the AG’s request to set aside an earlier judgment which the court ordered the government to pay Chikago about MK4m as terminal benefits.
Chikago sued the government for unfair and unlawful termination of employment, seeking damages for breach of contract and unfair labor practices.
However, the state through the AG asked the court to set aside a consent judgment made in September last year arguing that the contract was not unlawfully terminated and that the circumstances of the case was complex.
“What it remains now is the consent judgment that would give us power to enforce government to settle the money ordered by the court,” Chikago said.
Chikago said this was the sixth time for the court to reject the request by the AG.
“If the court made its decision and government does not want to respect it, what does the government want? I didn’t employ judges at the court but it was government that employed them there. Why they do not respect them,” queried Chikago.
He said the AG risks being convicted if she continues ignoring court’s ruling. The former ambassador accused government for disrespecting the judiciary in the country.
“In fact what I can see now is that government is taking court as a playing ground and this is a trick of government that if someone wins the case they appeal against it, they just to confuse the applicant,” he said.
Government deployed Dr Chikago to Japan as a diplomat in January 2002 and was recalled in 2005 before finishing his three-year contract which he signed in September 2003.
Some civil society activists in the country have been accused government for disrespecting judiciary and human rights issues.
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