Lusaka:  Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) executive director Goodwell Lungu yesterday stated that the fight against corruption and promotion of good governance in Zambia has reached a crossroad.

Reacting to the High Court judgment on the deregistration of Southern Africa Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD), Lungu stated that the ruling added impetus to the continued victimisation of Civil Society Organisations particularly governance NGOs which constructively criticised the government for non-performance or poor prioritisation of national development issues.

"As TIZ, we wish to affirm our conviction that the fight against corruption and promotion of good governance in Zambia has reached a crossroad. Therefore, deregistering any of the NGOs cripples the efforts and strides towards building a culture of transparency and integrity in Zambia. SACCORD has been one of the few independent civil society organisations that was key in promoting good governance and conflict resolution and therefore throwing out the application by the High Court is a drawback to the civil society fraternity," Lungu stated.

"In a democratic country like Zambia, where transparency and free flow and exchange of information is ideal, we expected the former minister of home affairs Hon. Ronnie Shikapwasha to highlight to the public which activities were considered to be inimical and a danger to state security that SACCORD was undertaking. We understand the fact that the home affairs minister may not be obliged to disclose the reasons but this creates room for frivolous explanations and bad motives to prevail."

He stated that TIZ was of the view that such draconian laws and actions would continue to hurt democracy.  "The deregistration has created an atmosphere where civil society will be handed such decisions without knowing what the dangerous issues they were involving in are. We have previously appealed to Parliament to consider enacting laws that will not empower ministers to act without being objective or availing reasons before any action is taken.

"However, with the enactment of the NGO Act, where key provisions of the law restrict the independence of NGOs and subject them to excessive and unwarranted controls which serve to impede rather than enable the freedom of association, it is our considered view that NGOs will still suffer further political reprisals," Lungu stated.

"It is our sincere hope that SACCORD will get the necessary stay of execution and be allowed the opportunity to appeal against the High Court ruling. As civil society, we are watching this development carefully and we hope that this is not the beginning of a wide scale clamp down on independent civil society organisations - especially those that deal with issues of governance and anti-corruption.  We urge government not to hide behind provisions of the law which in themselves are inimical to a flourishing democracy, in dealing with NGOs."

He stated that TIZ was very saddened with the High Court judgement.  "We want to state for the record that we find the whole episode of the intended deregistration to be unfortunate and wrong signal of the democratic standing of Zambia. The judgment, if unchallenged on appeal, will unfortunately set a bad precedent in terms of individual Zambians enjoying their inalienable freedoms of associations and expression.  The verdict will further narrow the political space available for civil society organisations to participate freely in national development," Lungu stated.

"The judgment, in our view, completely ignored Section 13(3) of the Societies Act which is very specific in protecting and ensuring procedural fairness when it provides that prior to cancelling any registration under the provisions of section 13, the Registrar shall notify his intention to the society concerned and shall give such society an opportunity to submit reasons why the registration should not be cancelled.

"The Supreme Court of Zambia found this section to be mandatory for both the minister and registrar in the case of Universal Church of the Kingdom vs the Registrar of Societies and the Attorney General. In this case, the Supreme Court further observed that the whole manner in which the exercise was done to deregister was a comedy of errors. We totally agree with the Supreme Court ruling.

"We find this ruling by the High Court as a perpetuation of the rather unfair and unfortunate antagonistic approach towards Civil Society Organisations by the current government. We wonder why the judge ignored the Supreme Court precedent that was put forward to her."