OCIDA wasn’t gagged – state house

STATE House has denied ever causing the cancellation of the Our Civic Duty Association (OCIDA) press conference which was scheduled to be delivered by Emeritus Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu on Thursday.

Anthony Bwalya, the Presidential Spokesperson has parried allegations that OCIDA was gagged from holding its much anticipated press conference which was to be cancelled on grounds that State House had objected to Archbishop Mpundu reading the statement on behalf of the organisation.

Mr Bwalya said in an interview that engagements such as press conferences by various interest groups and other gatherings bordered on the people’s enjoyment of their fundamental rights and freedoms and could therefore not be curtailed at the whims of State House.

He stated that the democratic and civic engagements space in Zambia was not regulated by State House and it was therefore not possible for any member of the presidency to have stopped or gagged Archbishop Mpundu from delivering his statement on behalf of OCIDA.

On Thursday, OCIDA was scheduled to hold a press conference at which Archbishop Mpundu was to address the nation on an array of governance issues including regional appointments in government, willful failure to investigate and prosecute current corruption cases, the ever increasing cost of living, increasing intolerance, state capture and the chaos that has characterised the procurement and delivery of fertiliser.

But the press conference was suddenly cancelled and Archbishop Mpundu told the Daily Nation in an interview later that that the cancellation was caused by the powers that be on grounds that they were uncomfortable with the Emeritus reading the statement.

Archbishop Mpundu stated that the powers that be were scared of him being the voice behind the governance issues OCIDA was raising the red flag against.

But Mr Bwalya explained that Zambia as a democratic country was governed by laws that regulated how citizens should meet and gather and it was not the mandate of State House to police such events.

“The democratic and civic engagement space in Zambia is not regulated by State House. We have laws in this country that regulate how people should meet and gather. We have the Constitution that guarantees the basic, yet fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.”

It is not State House that gives those rights and freedoms to citizens and how then can State House take away such freedoms from citizens? So State House did not gag Archbishop Mpundu or OCIDA. All these engagements border on one’s enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms,” Mr Bwalya said.

Archbishop Mpundu as OCIDA chairman was expected to address the nation through a press conference but failed to turn up as scheduled because the State did not approve of the event.

After the cancellation of the press conference, Brebner Changala, the civil rights activist told journalists that some OCIDA members had betrayed Archbishop Mpundu by attempting to disassociate themselves from the statement thereby causing confusion in OCIDA.