Law association of Zambia

I have been hesitant to write about a recent scandal in Zambia, but you all know I can only be silent for short periods:) Apparently the student at the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE) were caught with leaked final bar exam information.

The Story:
A source who happens to be a student in that class informed me that during their last and final exam for the program, one student presented a copy of the leak which she had received the previous night to the administrator. The administrator then went on to inform the rest of the class that they could stop trying to write the exam because all exams were now null and void!

The details:
The student that took the leaked information to the admin. Citing a disturbed conscience is the wife of John Sangwa… that’s right …of the Law offices of Messer’s Sangwa and co. One of the students that is alleged to have distributed the leak is our lovely president Mwanawasa’s niece! It appears Mr Sangwa and president Mwanawasa do not get along. Therein lays the conspiracy.

Their problem:
LAZ says they will not allow this years current students to take anymore exams until the whole system is cleaned up, even if it takes the rest of the year to do it. As you can understand this is distressing news especially for those that had nothing to do with this whole issue, and who wouldn’t have benefited from it! In fact, the latest rumor is that the students will all be expelled for examples sake.

My problem:
I believe in fairness and justice. You can not be guilty until proven innocent, although as humans we tend to treat people as such. The problem of leaks has been an issue for years due to the competitive nature of our exams. I remember being in high school, and we heard of people having the leaked national exams at grades 9 and 12! Its common knowledge that UNZA itself has leaks and a ‘sleep-with-the-professor-for-a-good-grade’ program, so I do not understand why the attorney-general Mumba Malila stated that he was “devastated” by the news!!! How out of touch is he???? I am of the opinion that the people who should be disciplined in this case should be 1) the people that write the exam 2) the people that print the exam 3) the people that distribute the exam 4) the people that are responsible for administering the exam!
The whole administration needs to be fired before any of the students can go down because someone sold that information to them. They did not break in and steal the papers.
I am waiting to see how ‘just’ LAZ is, because they seem to have forgotten that they too were once students…and this could have been them!