NGOs responds to Minister’s threats

Emerine Kabanshi

Council of Non-Government Organisations has urged all NGOs not to be intimidated and register under the current NGO Act of 2009.

The Council has further charged that threats of de-registration, as made by Minister of Community Development Mother and Child Health, Emerine Kabanshi through a press advert issued using the Department of NGO Registrar letterhead, are null and void.

Below is a statement issued during a media briefing:

Media colleagues,

We would like to welcome you to this briefing aimed at responding to current developments in the NGO landscape in the country.
The Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (CNGO) in Zambia is of the view that the recent government announcements concerning NGO registration and threats of de-registration, as made by Minister of Community Development Mother and Child Health, Hon. Emerine Kabanshi through a press advert issued using the Department of NGO Registrar letterhead, are null and void.
This is because decisions on registration and de-registration can only be made by the NGO Registration Board which gives instructions to the Registrar and not the Minister. The NGO Registration Board has not been established in conformity with the requirements of Section 6 of the NGO Act, and for this reason the Registrar is purporting to exercise powers not given to him in law. This position is explained in more detail in the remainder of this Press Statement.
The Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (CNGOs), established under Section 30 of the NGO Act, is the official representative of all NGOs in Zambia with the mandate to facilitate and coordinate the work of NGOs operating in Zambia. We were elected by the Zambia Congress of Non-Governmental Organisations (ZCNGOs), established under Section 29 of the NGO Act. The Council was elected at the Zambia Congress of NGOs held in December 2012 and organized by the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health.
As has already been explained in previous statements by the NGO Council, the NGO Act is not acceptable because it gives the minister excessive powers over NGOs, to the extent that they would no longer be NGOs but instead be turned by the Act into virtual government agencies. By attending this Congress, the NGO movement had not compromised their principled position that the NGO Act is not acceptable in its current form. However, soon after coming into office the new PF governmentindicated its willingness to review the Act, but stated that an Act could only be reviewed or repealed after having been in operation for 40 days. This being the case, the NGO movement reluctantly agreed to attend inaugural ZCNGOs, as required by Section 5 of the NGO Act. This was agreed in the hope and expectation that government would move speedily on the review process.
This expectation was re-enforced by the PF election promise to review the NGO Act in order to ‘guarantee the active participation of civil society in matters of social justice and good governance’ (p49 of the PF Manifesto).
The NGO Congress elected the 12 member Council of NGOs required by the Act, and asked them to participate in the review process. But the Congress refused to elect the seven NGO members to be seconded to the NGOs’ Registration Board (as required by Section 5 of the Act) on grounds that the establishment of an NGO Registration Board would mean commencement of the registration process before the Act had been reviewed and amended or otherwise repealed. The Congress resolved not to entertain any registration maneuvers under the current NGO Act until the Act had been reviewed and the Congress emphasized its reasons for the decision not to elect and second any NGO member to the NGO Registration Board.
According to Section 6 of the Act the NGO Registration Board must have 15 members, 7 of whom are elected by the Zambia Congress of NGOs, and the remaining 8 seconded from different government ministries and departments. It is therefore clear that without the 7 members elected from the Zambia Congress of NGOs, there has been no establishment of an NGOs’ Registration Board as required by the Act.
In short, the present registration process, purportedly being carried out under the terms of the Act, is in fact illegal, because all powers of registration are vested in a Board which has not been established according to the stipulations of the Act. The Department of the Registrar of NGOs is purporting to exercise powers not given to it in law. In addition, the ministry has initiated and implemented this so-called registration, and issued threats of de-registration, without any consultation whatsoever with the Council of NGOs which is legally mandated to facilitate and coordinate the work of NGOs in Zambia.
Members of the media, it is in this regard that we, the Council of NGOs mandated to facilitate and coordinate the work of NGOs in the country in accordance with section 31 of NGO Act No. 16 of 2009, do hereby stand and defend the resolutions of the Zambia Congress of NGOs not to start the registration process under the current NGO Act until the Act has been reviewed. Further, we want to express ignorance of the existence of such a list of registered NGOs as purported by the Minister as no consultation was made prior to coming up with such a list with the legal body under the Act, the Council, when approving the listed NGOs.
Some of the listed NGOs purported to have been registered by the ministry are not even on the original list of those NGOs that attended the December 2012 Zambia Congress of NGOs in Lusaka. We therefore wonder where these NGOs are coming from and why the so-called Board has secretly been registering NGOs without the Council’s involvement.
In this regard, the Council of NGOs wish to re-emphasize the fact that no amount of threats and intimidation will moveits members closer to the registration room under the present Act.
We must also state that efforts to liaise with government at ministerial level have completely failed, with no response from the office of the Minister of Community Development, Mother and Child Health, only media statement are being issued. The question that begs an answer is why has government been elusive in meeting with the Council?
For this reason we would like to publicly ask the government to stick to its original promise and to speed up the process of reviewing the Act. We further ask government to honor the November 2013 Road Map developed by all concerned stakeholders, government inclusive, on the review of the Act, failure to which the implementation of the Act in its present form will not be possible.
As a Council of NGOs, we will continue to engage government through the relevant ministries to explore ways and mechanisms on how to speed up the review process in order to reduce the standoff between the government and the NGO sector in the country.
We also urge our members countrywide not to register until the Council of NGOs resolves the outstanding issues and communicates the conclusion of its negotiations with government on the review of the NGO Act No. 16 of 2009 and the legalization of the registration process through the appointment of the full and legal NGOs Registration Board. Those who have registered must review their position while those in the process of registration should stop immediately.
In the meantime, NGOs have taken the Act to court to test its constitutionality. In our view the NGO Act entails gross violations of our basic constitutional right of association, and the offending sections of the Act must be declared unconstitutional.
We thank you all for coming.