Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has charged that posterity will judge both the ministry of Community Development and the PF government harshly over what it has described as an unwarranted move to give notice of de-registration to NGOs that have not registered under the NGO Act.
TIZ Executive Director Goodwell Lungu in a statement issued to QFM News says it is not only unfortunate but very sad that the Ministry has opted for a confrontational stance over the NGO Act when they are so many needs in the community that need urgent attention.
Mr Lungu says the issuance of such threats to stakeholders is shocking considering that NGOs have always been ready to dialogue.
He says TIZ reserves the right to disobey an unjust law as Zambia is a signatory to many international charters that protect the right of association.
Mr Lungu says TIZ is committed and ready to fight what he has described as an unjust law to the bitter end.
He states that as far as TIZ is concerned there is no single entity in Zambia that is registered as an NGO but either as a Society, Trust or Company limited by guarantee among others.
He wonders under these circumstances how the Ministry of Community Development can deregister TIZ which is registered as a company limited by guarantee and not as an NGO.
Mr Lungu has also wondered whether the Ministry of Community Development has powers to deregister an entity that they never registered in the first place.
He has accused the Registrar at the Ministry of Community Development of overriding the powers of the Registrar of Companies and Registrar of Societies where most Civil Society Organisations are registered.
Mr Lungu says TIZ insists that the Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Health and the PF Government concentrate their energies in reviewing this Act as promised in their Manifesto and their verbal statements during their first year in office as opposed to the current threats and intimidation.
He says TIZ and other stakeholders are ready for dialogue to resolve this impasse which we have continued to pursue and expect government to reciprocate in the same spirit.
Mr Lungu has since called upon government to withdraw forthwith the letters written to NGOs to debar them if they do not register in the next thirty days.
Efforts to get a comment from Community Development Minister Emerine Kabanshi proved futile as her mobile phone went unanswered.
Goodwell is now fighting the same people he was giving privileged informed about RB.
No! He can’t cheat the system anymore. All those concessions he has been enjoying are under scrutiny. PS this was proposed before PF.
PF please squeeze TIZ as much as possible for the good job of campaigning for Dochi Kubeba.
Moron NGO; they fought to destroy the system that ensured that Zambians are a free people but did not see the monster they built coming on them in the end.