BANGWEULU lawmaker Anthony Kasandwe and his Milanzi counterpart Melesiana Phiri has sued Patriotic Front (PF) president Miles Sampa in the Constitutional Court where they are challenging Mr Sampa’s decision to expel them from the PF without being heard.
The duo seeks a declaration that the purported acceptance of their resignation letters by PF secretary general Morgan Ng’ona on the basis of refusal to accept deductions to their salaries is void.
They two MPs also seek an order that the letter Mr Ng’ona wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly, purporting to convey their resignation from PF, without their express consent or knowledge of the resignation, is null and void.
This is not all.
The Members of Parliament also seek an order stopping Mr Sampa and others from continuing to harass and interfere with their work as MPs.
The petitioners also seek an order that their purported expulsion from the PF party in line with Article 72 (2) (e) of the Constitution is null and void.
In the petition, the two lawmakers have cited Mr Sampa, Mr Ng’ona and the Attorney General as first, second and their respondents.
“Your petitioners shall aver at trial that the first respondent [Mr Sampa] is not the legitimate president of the party,” they submit.
The petitioners added that the PF central committee has not approved any person to take part in the party presidential elections since the last general conference.
“The purported extraordinary general conference convened by the first respondent in which he purportedly ushered himself as president of the party was not a meeting convened by the general conference,” the documents read.
The petitioners submit that on October 24, 2023, Mr Sampa was expelled from the PF for gross misconduct, an ejection he never challenged.
Mr Kasandwe will submit at trial that in 2015 after being elected MP, he voluntarily wrote to the National Assembly instructing them to deduct K3, 000 monthly contribution to PF activities.
Another deduction was to go to a named orphanage and the other deduction towards the National Assembly football club.
Mr Kasandwe said after the 2021 general elections, PF MPs wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly authorizing the deduction of K5000 from each lawmaker’s salary.
He adds that Mr Sampa and others later purportedly took over the PF leadership through their illegal extraordinary general conference.
“They froze all the accounts of the party including the emergency fund held at Mwansa by the 12 MPs from Luapula,” the document reads.
The petitioners and 40 other PF MPs wrote to the clerk of the National Assembly instructing the office to stop making any deductions from their respective salaries.
“The decision to allow any deductions from their salaries was voluntary and at their discretion as the owners of the said funds and that there is no constitutional mandate for them to do so,” the petitioners submits.
The petitioners add that on March 11,2024, they learnt that Mr Ng’ona wrote a letter purportedly accepting their resignations from PF due to the fact that they wrote to the clerk of the National Assembly instructing to stop deducting the monthly contribution meant for the party.
“According to Mr Ng’ona, the non-contribution to the party was taken to mean that your petitioners had voluntarily resigned from the party in line with the Constitution of Zambia,” the document read.
The petitioners argue that at no point where they ever expelled from and they have neither faced any disciplinary action nor given any right to be heard in relation to any disciplinary charge.
(Mwebantu)
Why sue someone you do not recognize, if he is not legit then just let it be because it will not work