Chishimba Kambwili should not blame PF for the cancellation of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) certificate but must instead own up and apologise to those who toiled to build the party, says Mwenya Musenge.

And Musenge has asked Zambians to ignore Kambwili’s accusations that he intends to launch a new party called Zambia Our Own Motherland (ZOOM), saying “please don’t take Kambwili serious, he reacts to anything he hears without verifying”.

Meanwhile, Musenge says he has already appealed the NDC’s de-registration to the Ministry of Home Affairs in his official capacity as the registered Secretary General of the opposition party as captured by the Registrar of Societies.

Speaking at a press briefing in Kitwe, Tuesday, Musenge insisted that the de-registration of NDC had been necessitated by the negligence of former party leader Chishimba Kambwili, vice president Joseph Akafumba, Bridget Atanga and the party lawyers.

“The cancellation of NDC certificate has come because of Kambwili, Mr Akafumba, Mrs Atanga and their lawyers. They should not blame the PF or myself but rather own up and apologise to the people that worked so hard to build NDC. Kambwili and his lawyers are the ones who said NDC does not have a constitution and they killed the party by their own recklessness,” Musenge charged.

“And on the issue of communication, the Registrar has been writing to me as the legal, original applicant for the registration of NDC, the original person who walked through the doors at Registrar of Societies to search for the name, to register, to submit all the documentations for the registration of the party. The legal address that was first submitted at the Registrar of Societies is at my address as secretary general. So there is no way she (the Registrar of Societies) can be able to write to Kambwili or Atanga, no.”

He wondered how those whose addresses were not registered at the Registrar of Societies could receive correspondence about the affairs of the NDC.

“My office received notice from the Registrar of Societies on the 12th of August, 2019 of her intention to cancel the certificate of the National Democratic Congress party. In the notice, she gave us an opportunity to give grounds on why she should not cancel the certificate within seven days. I want to tell you that communication between Registrar of Societies and our office has been ongoing. We have actually been receiving registered mail from the Registrar of Societies to this office…plot number 5403, Billion Musonda Road, Kwacha East…” Musenge said.

He further gave a brief genesis of the problems that the party encountered before it was de-registered.

“Firstly, it’s not a secret that I, Mwenya Musenge, I am the architect and the vision carrier of NDC…So I invited a number of colleagues, including Chishimba Kambwili. But from the onset, he had refused to be part of this, stating that he was going to remain in the PF and fight his expulsion from the party. So my colleagues and I went on and registered the NDC,” Musenge explained.

“…though we appointed him (Kambwili) as a consultant, I and my colleagues thought that Kambwili could indeed one day lead the NDC as president, that was crossing our minds. Along the way, however, we began to have problems working with Chishimba and my team, including Akafuma began complaining about how he was conducting himself…His lack of transparency and accountability on finances donated to the party and many other issues became serious concerns and we then decided to terminate his consultancy services so that as a party, we can reorganise and focus on our vision.”

He said he decided to fight his problems with Kambwili in court because the latter made him an enemy of NDC.

“After the by-election in Roan, Kambwili became so excited and literally hijacked the NDC by using unconstitutional means, he decided to appoint a new leadership team and they all begun masquerading as NDC leaders,” Musenge said.

Meanwhile, Musenge said allegations that he had formed another party were not true.

“…there is no party called ZOOM that I have registered, my focus and that of my team is to work hard to salvage the NDC party…One day, the people of Zambia will know who Kambwili truly is, and that day is fast approaching. The UPND just stayed with him for barely three months and they quickly cut him off. So this is the person we are talking about,” said Musenge.