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The government should not hijack the enactment of the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Bill, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) executive director Bishop Paul Mususu has said. And Women for Change (WfC) executive director Lumba Siyanga has said if government is left to enact the bill, government might use it to suppress the NGOs. Mususu Calls on Government Not to Hijack
Enactment of NGO BillBy George Chellah
Post
June 1, 2005
Commenting on the sentiments of finance minister Ng'andu Magande that the bill was nothing strange and that there was no need for "credible" NGOs to be afraid of the proposed legislation, Bishop Mususu said it was unfortunate that with the government's previous machinations, the fears of NGOs were justified. He said the government should ensure that it creates a situation were NGOs are freer since it talks about them as stakeholders in development.
"Remember what happened to the Southern Africa Centre for Conflict Resolutions and Disputes (SACCORD)? We know what has happened across the border in Zimbabwe over the NGO Bill," Bishop Mususu said. "Therefore with that in mind, certainly the fears are justified and obviously this doesn't give government liberty to talk about NGOs in this atmosphere. Government should consider the timing and justify it."
He also said there was an attempt earlier to come up with an NGO Bill, where NGOs engaged in dialogue the government, and he argued that the same should occur. "The best people to do this are NGOs themselves," he said. "So the government should leave it to them to deal with it. In fact the current laws are adequate to prosecute, so with that in mind why do you need the NGOs Bill? It only points out to one situation in that it's trying to siphon freedom of expression."
Siyanga expressed similar sentiments."We don't know what government will be in charge in future, so if we let them enact this bill they might use it to suppress us at some point," she said. "Already the Registrar of Societies is regulating us, so I don't know how much they are going to regulate us. Otherwise, this is not the first time we are debating this bill. In 1997 it was a hot issue as well." She said WfC was affiliated to the Non-Governmental Coordinating Committee (NGOCC), which regulates and coordinates the operations of many NGOs and that WfC submits audited accounts for the sake of financial accountability.
On Sunday, finance minister Ng'andu Magande said in a liberalised environment, there was need to regulate NGOs and that a lot of people had complained of meeting various problems when dealing with the NGOs. He said the bill was not an attempt to kill NGOs, but an attempt to identify and recognise NGOs so that they have the pride of being open to scrutiny, transparency and accountability.
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