Chief Justice vows to expedite thin plastics case
Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda has ordered parties in the protracted thin plastics ban case to submit to him by May 13 2024 all relevant documentation on the matter following reports that the case’s file is missing.
He told the parties in the case on Tuesday in Blantyre that the documents he is looking for are for reconstruction of the file to conclude the matter.
Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda appeared before the Chief Justice at the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal to represent the State.
The Chief Justice said options on the case include reconstruction of the file or to rehear the matter.
The parties in the matter, Civil Appeal Cause No. 29 of 2021, are Golden Plastics Limited, the Minister of Environmental Affairs [now Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change] and the AG.
In an interview, Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (Mepa) acting director Tionge Mbale Luka said they welcome the Chief Justice’s decision to take up the matter, but called for speedy action.
She said: “As a country we are greatly affected in terms of pollution caused by plastics which continued to be manufactured while the case was in court. We are certainly not happy with the delay.”
On 24 May 2021, the High Court (Commercial Division) in Lilongwe vacated an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the thin plastics regulations and dismissed the judicial review challenging the legality of the thin plastics regulations by the applicant, Golden Plastics Limited.
Thereafter, Mepa proceeded with inspections, enforcement actions and conducted workshops for city and district councils on enforcement of plastics regulations.
And around July, 2021, Golden Plastics obtained a stay order at the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, preventing the enforcement of the High Court judgement until an appeal of that judgement was heard and concluded at the Supreme Court.
Mepa, through the AG Chambers, applied to have the stay order vacated. The hearing of the application to vacate the stay order was scheduled on July 15 2021, but later adjourned several times due to the unavailability of the judge.
The application to vacate the stay order was finally heard in December 2021 by Justice Lovemore Chikopa, now Deputy Chief Justice, who reserved his ruling to a later date to be communicated by the court.
To date, the appeal has not been heard and the ruling on the application to vacate the stay order has not been delivered. The plastics case resurfaces ahead of Earth Day today, April 22, which is being commemorated under the theme “Planet vs. Plastics.”
