Maravi

MMD's de-registration is legal - state

COMMENT - The MMD is obsolete, both ideologically (neoliberalism and corruption) and politically.

MMD's de-registration is legal - state
By Mwala Kalaluka
Thu 31 May 2012, 13:23 CAT

THE Attorney General's chambers says Registrar of Societies Clement Andeleki's action to de-register the MMD was legal and rational as the former ruling party ignored reminders to comply with statutory obligations for a long time.

And Lusaka High Court judge-in-charge Jane Kabuka has set June 26, 2012 as the date for judgment in a matter where the MMD through its national secretary Major Richard Kachingwe applied for judicial review against Andeleki's decision.

When the judicial review application matter came up for hearing of arguments before judge Kabuka yesterday, the MMD's lawyer Hobday Kabwe said Andeleki acted outside his jurisdiction when he de-registered the party.

Kabwe said Andeleki used the law retrospectively when he cancelled the MMD's registration on the basis of non-compliant branches of the party and as such he exhibited unreasonableness.

He said in his exhibits before judge Kabuka, it would appear that Andeleki was trying to evade from the decision he made to the public that his decision of the MMD meant nullifying the party's 53 parliamentary seats.

"This is the decision, which we have had instructions to come and request this court that it must be nullified and must be overruled," said Kabwe.

But in its response, the state through chief state advocate Mwila Chibwe Kombe and assistant senior state advocate Peggy Hlazo, said Andeleki was on firm ground when he de-registered the MMD for failing to comply with statutory obligations.

She said Andeleki communicated to the MMD before the de-registration was effected and the party was given a 21-day notice to make good on the K390 million that it owed the Registrar of Societies.

Kombe said Andeleki's public statement over the nullification of the 53 MMD parliamentary seats was based on the resultant effect of his action to de-register the party and not that he nullified the seats.

She said the state's position was that the MMD had failed to show that Andeleki's decision was illegal, unreasonable and that it did not meet the tenets of natural justice and that there was procedural impropriety.

Kombe said Andeleki had the powers to de-register the MMD pursuant to Section 13 (2)(c) of the societies Act, following the MMD's failure to furnish the Registrar of Societies with the required information and offsetting the statutory debt.

Kombe said the MMD also prematurely took the matter to court because the law provides them another channel of appealing to the Minister of Home Affairs but that they did not exhaust this avenue.

"This is not political harassment as it wants it to appear because even when the MMD was in power, several reminders were sent to them over this but nothing was done. Now that a decision has been made, can that decision be said to be unreasonable for its defiance of logic? Our answer is in the negative," she said.

Kombe asked judge Kabuka to dismiss the MMD's application with costs because Andeleki's decision to de-register the party was within the confines of procedural fairness and that there was nothing exceptional about the MMD case.

Judge Kabuka told Kabwe that she was surprised that the arguments that Kombe had made were the ones that he should have raised during his submission.

"I was expecting that to come from you," judge Kabuka told Kabwe.

"Your colleague was arguing that this was not the first time and she gave a history. This is where I was expecting you to react."

Judge Kabuka ultimately set judgment in the matter for June 26.

Labels: ATTORNEY GENERAL, MMD, PARTIES

posted by MrK @ 2:09 PM