PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda yesterday urged stakeholders to accept the court verdict in which the Lusaka High Court rejected the registration of the London judgment where second Republican president Frederick Chiluba and seven others were found liable for the loss of US$46 million by the Zambian Government.

The president said the Government had lost several cases but never complained or engaged in unnecessary debates with the civil society.

Mr Banda told journalists before departure for a two-day tour of Southern Province that the civil society organisations condemning the court outcome were merely politicking instead of accepting the court decision.

The Lusaka High Court on August 13 refused to register the London judgment on account of the absence of a reciprocal arrangement between Zambia and the United Kingdom.

Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha last week told journalists Government did not have intentions of appealing the verdict to avoid continued persecution of former heads of State and concentrate on delivering development to the Zambian people.

Mr Banda said Government realised that for the Judiciary to operate effectively it should not be interfered with and that Zambians would soon realise that his Government was operating within the premises of promoting the independence of institutions of governance such as the judiciary.

"The Government does not interfere with the judiciary. We listen to the courts and that is why, many times, the rulings have gone against us and we have accepted them," President Banda told journalists at City Airport ahead of his departure for Southern Province.

Mr Banda said court matters must be rested by the courts themselves and that when such rulings were passed stakeholders should accept them.

He wondered why everything done by independent institutions and undertaken in a transparent manner was being blamed on the Government.

President Banda said Government would continue to fight corruption and that such efforts would be strengthened by the laws his administration was pushing to help curb corruption.

Mr Banda said the court outcome involving Dr Chiluba had been politicised by the civil society in disregard of the efforts the Government was putting in place to curb corruption.

Meanwhile, the president has assured Zambians that Government would develop the whole country in put up road infrastructure to promote the movement of goods and services.

The president said the Choma-Namwala Road was very strategic for internal trade in Southern Province and that similar efforts would be put in place in the rest of the country.

He said road infrastructure was being opened up everywhere in Zambia and that the Choma-Namwala Road was being given extra attention because it had been on the drawing board for more than 20 years.

Mr Banda said time had come to act on the road so that it can contribute to the development of the country.

"The Government will work hard and this is not just in Namwala but the whole country. We want to develop roads and we are working very hard to do that," Mr Banda said.