Government has given the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) the green light to hold its planned rally in Kabwata constituency scheduled for tomorrow.

Home Affairs Minister Edgar Lungu says decision to allow the UPND to go ahead with their planned rally was arrived at following a successful consultative meeting he had with Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani and Lusaka Police Commissioner Joyce Kasosa, respectively.

Mr. Lungu has however stated that police officers will not be present at the rally because of the UPND’s confrontation approach they have taken over the matter.

He said it is the responsibility of the UPND leadership through their Marshalls that they ensure maximum peace before, during and after the rally.

Mr. Lungu said the leadership of the opposition party will be answerable for any violent act that may occur before, during or after their rally, adding that the challenge now lies with the UPND in ensuring that the rally is violent free.

He said the UPND must nonetheless bear in mind that the earlier decision by the police in Lusaka to deny them permission to hold their planned rally on grounds that the opposition party could not be trusted to hold a violent free rally was done in good faith.

Mr. Lungu said the police’s stance was not in any way meant to deny the UPND their freedom of assembly or association as enshrined in the constitution.

The Home Affairs Minister said every Zambian saw for themselves the violent acts that were perpetrated by UPND cadres when they assaulted an innocent police officer who was merely carrying out his duty to safeguard the lives of the general public and those of UPND cadres.

He told journalists at a press briefing in Lusaka today that it was against this background that the police denied the UPND notice to their rally.

“However, though they refused to heed to calls by the Lusaka police commissioner to have dialogue over the issue, as provided for under the Public Order Act.

“ We will allow them to proceed with their planned rally because we want to discourage the spirit of confrontation and violence and at the same time foster the spirit of peace and dialogue because that is what our Government believes in,” Mr. Lungu said.

He appealed to the leadership of the opposition party to ensure they adhere to the provisions of the Public Order Act by ensuring they have enough Marshalls to oversee the event according to the assurance they gave the police in their notice to hold the rally.

Mr. Lungu implored the UPND to cooperate with the police by ensuring that they have an audience with the Provincial Commissioner today so that they can discuss on how best the rally can be policed to avoid acts of violence by UPND cadres as witnessed in the recent past.

“Further the UPND leadership is urged to ensure that their cadres respect members of the public who may be either near the venue of their rally or along the roads leading to the venue for the rally by avoiding the use of unpalatable language or any form of annoying behaviour,” he said.

Yesterday, the opposition party announced that its planned public rally in Kabwata will go ahead after various consultations with Zambia Police.

In a statement made available to the media by Kuchunga Edwin Simusamba, the Deputy general Secretary for Politics, UPND said that Police has agreed to allow the rally to proceed.

” On behalf of the United Party for National Development (UPND), I would like to inform members of the general public that the planned rally in Kabwata will go ahead this Sunday 27th January 2013, starting at 12:00hrs at Kabwata Basic School grounds, ” read the statement

“This follows various consultations between the UPND and the government. The Police has finally agreed to follow the law by allowing the rally to proceed. See you there! Zambia forward,” concluded the statement.

Meanwhile, the Home Affairs Minister said he has powers to bring into extinction a society that threatens the country’s peace, law and order.

He said his ministry has been closely following events in the MMD and has since warned senior MMD officials that the current happenings in the party had the potential to disrupt peace and harmony in the country.

He said he will not hesitate to invoke the powers vested in him as a custodian of law and order in the country to act on the former ruling party if they fail to resolve their internal differences.

Mr. Lungu urged the MMD to straighten out their differences before filling in of nomination for the Mpongwe and Livingstone by election begin saying the party risk not taking part in the two by elections.

He said the Police will not allow a situation where two different factions from the same party bring different names of candidates for nomination on the two by elections.

ZANIS

The Lusaka High Court has dismissed an application by former directors of the defunct Access Financial Services Limited (AFSL), directors Aaron Chungu and Faustin Kabwe to have their five year jail term appeal re-opened.

The four were slapped with a five-year jail term by a Lusaka magistrate’s court on corruption charges.

In this case Chungu and Kabwe who are jointly charged with former Finance Minister Katele Kalumba, his Permanent Secretary, Stella Chibanda had applied to have their appeal case re-opened before delivering judgment.

High Court Judges Nigel Mutuna and Jane Kabuka in delivering their ruling today on whether the applicant’s appeal should be re-opened before passing judgment on grounds that they had established fresh evidence said the court was not convinced with the arguments advanced.

Judge Kabuka who read the ruling said the evidence which the applicants adduced that they had established fresh evidence indicating that some witnesses were paid to testify against them could not constitute credible evidence of a bribe.

“At the most, we find it can only amount to an allegation on the said paid named witnesses, and for the reasons given, the application for leave to re-open the appeal must fail as well as the second limb of the application. To file a further ground of appeal, having been anchored on the success of the application for leave to re-open the appeal, accordingly falls away,” she said.

The judges said it was further clear that the information sought to be adduced as additional evidence was available to the applicants as shareholders or directors in AFSL if they had bothered to look for it.

“Against this backdrop we are constrained from finding that the facts disclosed can, even with the most liberal approach, qualify to be classified as ‘exceptional circumstances’ to justify reception of this evidence as fresh evidence,” said judge Kabuka.

Chungu and Kabwe’s lawyers, Robert Simeza and John Sangwa from Simeza, Sangwa and Associates had asked the court to grant them permission to have the appeal case re-opened claiming two of the key witnesses were paid substantial amounts of money by the prosecution.

The lawyers told the judges that it would be in the interest of justice for the appeal to be re-opened and allow them to file fresh evidence.

They said granting them this application would demonstrate how two former employees of Access Financial Services, Enock Mwale and Isaac Chitundu were allegedly paid K800 million and K658 million, respectively, to testify against them.

They charged that the two witnesses were paid to “colour” their testimonies against their clients and were also paid K2.1 million and K11 million respectively, in excess of their terminal benefits.

Judgment has since been set for March 29 this year.

Transparency International Zambia Chapter (TIZ) has said that the nomination of Gabriel Namulambe by the Patriotic Front to represent the ruling party in the Mpongwe by-elections sends a wrong signal to government’s quest to fight corruption.

TIZ Executive Director Goodwell Lungu said that the action clearly demonstrates that the PF can easily accept former MMD government officials whom it has loudly said were allegedly corrupt to now become part of the PF for political convenience and not on principle.

Mr. Lungu said that it is a known fact that Mr. Namulambe is currently facing criminal prosecutions in the courts and having such an individual represent a party in government that is allegedly allergic to corruption is inimical to the party’s energy of fighting corruption.

He has since strongly advised the Patriotic Front government to lead by example by requesting Mr. Namulambe to concentrate on clearing his name for the alleged offenses he is being prosecuted for.

Mr. Lungu told QFM news in a statement that in as much as Mr. Namulambe’s democratic right to resign and join a party of his choice, TIZ believes that it is wrong for such candidates to be given a second chance of re-contesting because of their self inflicted by-election which subjects huge sums of tax payers’ money to wastage.

He categorically stated that TIZ has got nothing against Mr. Namulambe as his organizations’ main interest is to constantly keep reminding government to avoid diluting the corruption fight and sending signals that the PF is becoming a haven for those who are seeking protection.

Mr. Lungu stated that TIZ will closely monitor Mr. Namulambe’s corruption charges to avoid any foreseeable miscarriage of justice.

QFM