DPP postpones NGC meeting
Following a Lilongwe High Court Registry order on Thursday stopping the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) national governing council (NGC) meeting which was slated for today, the party yesterday postponed of the meeting to a later date.
DPP says it has postponed the meeting due to the order of injunction obtained by the party’s deputy director of political affairs Billy Malata.
“The DPP being a law-abiding party, has complied with the order of injunction and has, therefore, postponed the NGC meeting to another date to be communicated once all processes to vacate the injunction are concluded,” reads the statement signed by the party’s secretary general Grelzeder Jeffrey.
The court granted the injunction to Malata who, in his sworn statement, argued that the people who were invited to attend the meeting were more than those recognised under the DPP constitution to be members of the NGC.
A copy of the Order of Injunction by Justice Howard Pemba Civil Case number 125 of 2023 which Weekend Nation has seen dated June 22 2023 restrains the party’s secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey, its spokesperson Shadric Namalomba and the DPP from holding the NGC until a further order of the court.
In a telephone interview earlier yesterday, Jeffrey said she was yet to be served with the injunction and, therefore, asked for more time before she could comment.
Said Jeffrey: “I am also seeing the stories on social media, but these being court matters, I cannot comment unless I am officially served with the injunction.”
The order further directs the claimant to file an inter partes application for the injunction within 14 days from June 22 2023.
According to a sworn statement by Malata, who is also a member of NGC, he received a new list of members of the NGC to attend the meeting and that the list has about 20 people who he said are not supposed to be part of the list.
In a brief interview, Malata’s lawyer Wapona Kita said: “This is an important constitutional matter within the DPP party politburo because it will in the end determine when and who is supposed to attend and vote at the DPP convention.”
A fortnight ago, Jeffrey said in an interview that the party’s central committee had set June 24 for the party’s NGC meeting to appoint dates for the conventions.
She said the first convention was for delegates to adopt changes to the party’s constitution as proposed by the functional review committee while the second would be for delegates to elect new office-bearers.
Said Jeffrey: “We are now moving forward to strengthen the party. The NGC is meeting on June 24 to come up with dates for two conventions.”
The functional review committee, headed by DPP vice-president for Eastern Region Bright Msaka, also reviewed the party’s constitution.
Among others, the committee proposed that the party should only have two vice-presidents, a move away from the current system where it has four regional vice-presidents.
The new constitution also proposes that new members should be paying a joining fee determined by the NGC, renewable every two years, and that any member who voluntarily leaves the DPP for another party shall not be allowed to re-join the DPP.
Article 9 (2) of the DPP constitution stipulates that members to the central committee are the party president, vice-presidents, secretary general, treasurer general, national directors of women and youths. There are nine (9) in total.
