We’ve not in any way committed any offence, says Lubinda
By Margaret Malenga
ACTING PF president Given Lubinda has wondered why the chief registrar of societies accepted returns that only had three names, whilst the provisions of the law say they must always be 10.
Featuring on Lusaka Music Radio’s ‘Talk of the city’ programme on Wednesday, Lubinda said it is “totally malicious” that the chief registrar waited until two years later to say that only three names had been filed for office bearers of the former ruling party.
“The registrar has the law in front of her and a person goes and says ‘I’m coming to file names for office bearers for my society, the law says that they must be 10, but I’m filing three’. And the registrar accepts and says ‘yes you have filed’, and then waits until two years later and says ‘you only filed three names’. No, that can’t be! We filed our submission with 10 names,” Lubinda said. “And what I would like members of the public to bear in mind is that how could it have been that the chief registrar of societies accepted returns that only had three names when the provisions of the law says that they must always be 10? The registrar wouldn’t have accepted our application if we had three names, because the law says there must be 10.”
He insisted that the very first submission that was made in 2021 had all the 10 names as is required by law.
“And how could we have gone there and said ‘registrar, we are coming with three names and we will come with four tomorrow and we will come with six next week’? We couldn’t have done that. Our initial submission in 2021 has all the 10 names,” he said.
And in reference to the part in the notice that indicated that the registrar wrote to the party requesting them to avail a full list of office bearers with a minimum of 10, Lubinda confirmed it.
He said there has been “lots of correspondence” between the registrar of societies and the Patriotic Front.
“This is the reason I am saying this is just a storm in a tea cup and it should not cause any worry whatsoever to anybody. Everything is in order and within no time the registrar herself will have to pronounce that the Patriotic Front is keeping with the provisions of the law. I would like to just assure the Zambian people that this malice will be addressed as quickly as possible,” said Lubinda. “There is no need to worry whatsoever. There is no cause for panic. Can everybody just rest peacefully knowing that there is nothing like deregistering the Patriotic Front because the Patriotic Front has been abiding by the provisions of the law. And I want to just assure everybody that we have not in any way committed any offence to cause the deregistration of the Patriotic Front.”
In her April 25, 2023 letter to PF secretary general, chief registrar of societies Thandiwe
Mhende stated that “You are hereby notified that I intend on cancelling your political party following your failure to comply with the order to avail a full and complete list of office bearers of your party.”
She reminded PF that the legal requirement under section 2 of the societies Act cap 119 of the laws of Zambia was for every society to have a minimum of 10 office bearers.
Mhende said PF had only presented three office bearers even after being given 21 days to comply with the order.
“You are advised upon receipt of this notice to make representations within seven days to show cause why your party should not be cancelled in accordance with Section 13 (2) (c) of the aforementioned Act,” said Mhende.