The Six Pointers And Signs That The Authorities Want To Frustrate The Registration Of The United Kwacha Alliance And The Political Parties Aligned To It

REGISTRATION OF THE UNITED KWACHA ALLIANCE, UKA.
29th February, 2024

The United Kwacha Alliance is a society along the lines of the United Democratic Party Alliance (UDA) which was registered under the Societies Act CAP 119 of the Laws of Zambia.

The objective of United Democratic Alliance are practically mirrored in the objectives of The United Kwacha Alliance and include providing;

A forum for political parties and civil society organizations that share the same political and economic ideas to engage in activities that promote democratic practices and values, good governance, and national development.

THE SIX POINTERS AND SIGNS THAT THE AUTHORITIES WANT TO FRUSTRATE THE REGISTRATION OF THE UNITED KWACHA ALLIANCE AND THE POLITICAL PARTIES ALIGNED TO IT

1. FIRST POINTERS AND SIGNS

On 13th February 2024, we applied for clearance and reservation of the name United Kwacha Alliance.

Later on the same day, obviously after some high ranking officials became aware of the reservation of the name, a call came from one of the staff at the Registrar of Societies asking if we were a political party.

2. SECOND POINTERS AND SIGNS

On 20th February 2024, an application setting out three proposed names for clearance for a political party that would be formed under which candidates identified by the UNITED KWACHA ALLIANCE would stand were submitted. The three names submitted to the Registrar of Societies were;

a. UKA
b. UKANI and
c. ARISE

The name ‘UKA’ was outrightly rejected without giving any reason whilst ‘UKANI’ and ‘ARISE’ were said to be available. UKANI was preferred.

The following day a call was received from the office of the Registrar of Societies that the name UKANI was no longer available.

3. THIRD POINTERS AND SIGNS

The promoters of UKANI went to see the officers at the Registrar of societies to find out why there was a change in clearance and reservation of the name.

They were not given a reason. The promoters then said they would take the third option of ‘ARISE’ which they had earlier been given. They were then told that even this previously cleared name was not available.

4. FOURTH POINTERS AND SIGNS

A letter was written by the promoters on 21st February 2024 asking to be given in writing the reasons for the withdrawal of the names they were previously told were available.

The office of the Registrar of Societies vehemently refused to accept the letter and verbally said they were not obliged to give reasons. No response to the letter has ever been made up to today.

Arising from the obvious stumbling blocks, we resolved that we would no longer engage with the various authorities incognito or through undeclared proxies.

5. FIFTH POINTERS AND SIGNS

On 28th February 2024, it became necessary that the our interim Chairman, Mr Sakwiba Sikota and President Silavwe to take a set of fingerprints to the service headquarters.

We wanted the police to clear the names so that we could then put the cleared names to the form that would go to the Registrar of Societies.

The law requires that the people who are office bearers in a society or party must have police clearance showing that they have no criminal record.

If any of the proposed shareholders turns out to have a criminal record the society or party must find someone to replace them.

Once you have ten cleared set of finger prints you then attach them to the form from the Registrar of Societies and take it to the city council for their scrutiny and endorsement.

The next step is that you then come back to the police and they conduct interviews of the office holders after which they too endorse the form.

Interim Chairperson Sikota and President Silavwe therefore went to the police to get over this hurdle of the police insisting that the names be put on the form before fingerprint clearance.

The police refused to do the fingerprint clearance and insisted that the uncleared names must be put on the form before they start the clearance process.

6. SIXTH POINTERS AND SIGNS

At no point did President Jackson Silavwe or State Counsel Sakwiba Sikota state that their submission of the fingerprints represented or culminated into the registration of UKA to the police.

We regret the fact that state police decided to act, without reference to any law that United Kwacha Alliance abrogated any procedure in the noble attempt of United Kwacha Alliance to take any steps to register the alliance.

If any breach has been committed, we seek direction from state police to point out the statutory provision to us that is necessitating the delay in processing the fingerprints so that we can remedy this.

We also want to remind Mr Rae Hamoonga (police spokesperson) and Inspector General Graphael Musamba that they will be judged in future by the same yard stick they are using today to deal with those they perceive to be opposition.

Instead we saw the police release a press statement barely 30 minutes after the 2 UKA leaders left the service headquarters. This must be the fastest reaction of the Zambia police since the independence of our country in 1964.

The bottom line is that there are unnecessary road blocks being put in the way of the People’s Movement but this will not deter or stop the momentum of the United Kwacha Alliance, UKA.

Issued by:
Jackson Silavwe
National Council Member
UKA

Ms Saboi Imboela
National Council Member
UKA