No Army Attire At Rallies
By Dickson Jere
The government presented a Bill in parliament yesterday that will regulate public gatherings and political rallies including banning of wearing of army uniforms or regalia at such rallies and gatherings.
The new law will replace the outdated “Public Order Act” of 1955 that will be repealed and replaced by “The Public Gathering Act” of 2026.
Under the proposed legislation, anyone who intends to hold public meetings will be required to notify the police five days before the event. And police should respond within three days indicating whether it has approved the holding of the public gathering or not.
“An authorized officer may attach conditions to the approval of the holding of a public gathering for purposes of ensuring public order and public safety,” the Bill reads.
The proposed law will also ban the wearing of Army uniforms at the public rallies.
“A Person shall not wear an attire at a public gathering that signifies an association or connection with the Defense Force or national security services of the Republic or of a foreign State,” the Bill reads.
However, the law will allow the wearing of such unions in public for purposes of staging a play, circus or any theatrical performance like comedy and dances.
“A stage play performed in a place in which the stage play may lawfully and publicly be performed,” the Bill reads.
Further, the proposed law will grant certain events exemption from obtaining police approval for the gatherings such as funeral processions, wedding, traditional ceremonies and meetings, indoor meetings, gathering in churches. I think sports activities should also be included on this list.
The President, Vice President, Speaker Ministers, Members of Parliament, Mayors and Councilors will not be required to get approval for their meetings in the conduct of their official duties. Those whose permits have denied, they can appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs.
“A person aggrieved with a decision of the Minister may within 14 days of the decision, appeal to the High Court,” the Bill reads.
An important inclusion in this Bill is the right to journalists to attend and cover public gatherings without interference.
The Public Order Act has been problematic in the past leading to the famous “Mulundika Case” in which the Courts declared the requirement for police permits for public gatherings as unconstitutional. The court opined that the requirement infringed on the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.
However, the government of President Frederick Chiluba went back to Parliament and changed the requirements of “permits” to “notification” for public meetings.
The new Bill has maintained the requirement of “notification”, which effectively operates as a “permit” as the police still has powers refuse the organizers from holding the meeting on security reasons. There will be need to fine tune this aspect of the Bill so that the police do not necessarily withhold approvals using security reasons.
There is need to find a balance between the two competing measures. Maybe we should put much responsibility on the organizers to also bring in marshals to help with crowd control and security in case the police are under staffed. The use of marshals is widely used in other countries.