Registrar of Societies plan to deregister NAQEZ regrettable
IT IS regrettable that the Registrar of Societies has begun the process to deregister the National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ). Once more, the Registrar of Societies is in the news for all the wrong reasons.
It is clear that the New Dawn government is adamant on using this once respected state institution as its an attack ‘bulldog’ as well as the judge, jury and executioner on all organisations and political parties that are viewed as threats to the intolerant and overly insecure United Party for National Development (UPND) regime.
This is the same Registrar of Societies that swiftly moved to illegally change office bearers for the main opposition party, the Patriotic Front (PF), and UNIP not so long ago, and it is now planning to deregister NAQEZ. There is political interference at the Registrar of Societies, an important public institution that should be delivering services to the Zambian people in an impartial and apolitical manner.
It is evident that NAQEZ has helped the country in promoting quality education and improved conditions of service for teachers, a function that the teacher unions are struggling to effectively execute but which they are now unable to do because of political patronage and corruption. Instead of protecting and promoting the interests and welfare of the teachers, the current trade union leaders are more concerned about eating from the table of the employers.
A politically compromised and therefore weakened labour movement in the education sector left a yawning gap that NAQEZ has filled.
NAQEZ has been courageous in expressing concerns about the negative aspects of the free education policy that President Hakainde Hichilema and his New Dawn government are implementing, while the trade unions have remained silent for fear of angering those they are eating with in government. What a betrayal! Yet they are at the same time busy feeding off the monthly subscriptions government deducts from the salaries of the same mostly underpaid teachers they are expected to fight for.
Over-enrollment, overstretched resources, overworked teachers and the need for proper infrastructure and teacher support are just a few of the issues that NAQEZ has consistently brought to light so that they are addressed. It is evident that the New Dawn administration has not taken this criticism well.
NAQEZ has been effective in advocating more funding to the education sector to enable the provision of quality and inclusive education in Zambia.
The organisation has also been reliable and influential in pushing for civic participation in promoting good governance in educational institutions and accountability in the utilisations of funds in the education sector. This has not been received well by the New Dawn government.
The latest development in which the Registrar of Societies has notified NAQEZ of its intention to deregister the civil society organisation (CSO) is a demonstration of how petty and intolerant the ruling UPND is to criticism.
The reasons advanced for deregistration are ridiculous . The Registrar of Societies has told NAQEZ, “It is not your [NAQEZ] mandate to talk about President Hakainde Hichilema’s betrayal of the over 40,000 teachers he promised to move to appropriate salary brackets but has failed.”
Acting Registrar of Societies Jason Mwamba, in a letter dated April 14, 2025 addressed to NAQEZ secretary general, which The Mast has seen, said the decision to deregister the organisation followed complaints that it was contravening the Societies Act.
“You have diverted from your initial objectives for which you were registered and now pursue objectives of a trade union for which you were not registered,” Mwambazi said.
But NAQEZ executive director Dr Aaron Chansa has linked Mwambazi’s decision to begin the process of deregistering his organisation to UPND media director Mark Sumuuwe’s recent threats, and said there was no legal basis for the cancellation of its registration certificate.
“In other words, those who allege that this society has departed from its mandate should, at the very least, provide evidence of awareness of the legal basis on which we operate and demonstrate how our activities have diverted from the said mandate ,” Dr Chansa said in response to Mwambazi’s notice to deregister NAQEZ.
It is now obvious that the UPND and its New Dawn government have become intolerant to criticism and are resolved to use the Registrar of Societies to disband and repress any political parties and organisations that criticise its governance. The New Dawn leadership is unsettled with the fact that majority of teachers undoubtedly adore NAQEZ for standing for them when their unions have abandoned them.
Stop the intolerance and allow NAQEZ to continue executing its mandate of promoting delivery of quality education, something that the politically compromised teacher trade unions have sadly failed to do.
