Judgment No. CCZ 11/15 13
Const. Application No. CCZ 28/11
The applicant’s submissions in relation to the discrimination that he alleged
are in my view woefully short on detail and substance. He charges that ‘the public authority’,
by arresting and charging him while acting by virtue of a written law, (s 182(1)), treated him
in a discriminatory manner. This was because, he averred, no such charges were brought
against the incumbent presidential candidate who, in 2005, made some relatively ‘tough’ but
similar comments on a member of the judiciary. He further argues that such selective
treatment of members of the public constituted a violation of one’s right to freedom from
discrimination.
The applicant evidently relies for these contentions on the provisions of s
23(1)(b) of the old Constitution. Although this could be implied from the wording of part of
the relief that he seeks, the applicant offered no further elaboration, nor has he specifically
alleged, that s 182(1) of the Code was discriminatory either in itself, or in its effect. He
alleges, instead, that the public authority, by arresting and prosecuting him while acting in
terms of this provision - a written law – and in the performance of their public office, had
treated him in a discriminatory manner, as already indicated.
I find these submissions to be flawed in two major respects, and therefore
devoid of any merit.
Firstly, one cannot hope to escape arrest for committing a crime, on the basis
that such arrest would violate his constitutionally guaranteed right to protection against
discrimination, because another person who may have committed the same crime was not
similarly arrested. In my view this would be to misconstrue the import of both the old
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