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Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Court of Justice president Akilaono Akiwumi has said there is need for Malawi to start using the services of his court if the country is to attract more investors in the trade sector.
Opening a daylong workshop in Lilongwe to publicize the court’s activities on Wednesday, Akiwumi said using the court’s activities would give investors assurance of their legal accessibility where there is need for justice to be sought on matters of trade in the region.
“It is important that as a member of Comesa, each country must utilise the court’s services because no investor would think it desirable to invest their resources in a country where there is no assurance of a strong judicial system,” he said.
Justice minister Paul Maulidi concurred with Akiwumi, saying: “Most foreign investors prefer to invest in a place where they’re assured that their investments are protected by the rule of law and where independent and impartial mechanisms exist for resolving commercial disputes.”
He said where a country is in a state of emergency there could be no development since no sensible investor would waste his resources in such type of political environment.
“There can be no meaningful development where the rule of law, human rights, personal freedoms and democracy don’t exist or aren’t respected. These are the basic ingredients of liberty of an individual to engage in economic, social and political activities,” he said.
Akiwumi said they decided to conduct the first publicity seminar in the country because no country has filed its complaints since it started in 1998 apart from former employees of the Comesa secretariat.
“Most of the suits filed are of ex-employees of Comesa complaining of wrongful dismissals and where they were fired for breach of laws stipulated in the Comesa Treaty. So we thought that after publicising the court’s activities more people would know it and the services it offers,” he said.
The Comesa court, which is based in Khartoum, Sudan, has seven judges from seven of the 20 member states. Justice James Kalaile is representing Malawi.
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