. Mpondela

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
ZAMBIA Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) president, Elias Mpondela has asked the Lusaka High Court to allow him join proceedings in the case in which former world 400 metres hurdles champion Samuel Matete and four other candidates are challenging the decision to bar them from contesting elections.
In an affidavit filed yesterday, Mpondela said that he is competent to be joined in the matter.
Mpondela, of plot number 22976 Bennie Mwiinga Housing Complex in Lusaka, said that he was the president of ZAAA by virtue of having been elected at the association’s annual general meeting (AGM) on December 4, 2010.
He said ZAAA postponed its AGM which was scheduled for December 27, 2014 because of difficulties in locating and contacting the electoral college of December 2002 as ordered by Judge Chalwe Mchenga.
Matete, Christopher Manda, Judith Chaongopa, Jonathan Chipalo and Carol Mokola have taken ZAAA to court for barring them for contesting elections.
Meanwhile, Phil Kubombela has asked the court to set aside the order that replaced him with Yona Mwale as ZAAA secretary general.
Kubombela, of H664, Ndeke Township in Kitwe, said that he was the general secretary of ZAAA whose executive was elected on December 4, 2010 for a four year term.
He said Article 10 (g) of the ZAAA constitution provides that elections should be held every four years in the last quarter of the year or in the first quarter not later than March.
Kubombela said the association’s constitution does not envisage that the elective ZAAA AGM on the exact date the current executive was ushered into office.
He said the ZAAA constitution does not have any provision for the appointment or election of an interim executive committee.
Kubombela said following the granting of an ex-parte order of interim injunction which directed that delegates to the ZAAA AGM should come from the clubs and area boards allocated numbers on December 31, 2002, the current ZAAA executive committee in seeking to obey the order postponed the AGM from December 27, 2014.
This, he said, was to enable the association locate and communicate with the clubs as there were two days between the date of service of the order of the injunction and the scheduled date of AGM.
Kuombela said despite the postponement, Matete, Manda, Chipalo, Mokola and Chaongopa organised an illegal AGM where they purportedly elected themselves as interim ZAAA executive for two months.
He said the illegal AGM and interim executive were not recognised by both the convent of Zambia.
Kubombela said it was the illegal AGM or interim executive committee that appointed Mwale as general secretary.
He said Mwale then applied for an ex-parte order substituting him as a respondent in the matter.
Justice Mchenga is scheduled to deliver the ruling on whether or not to confirm the injunction granted to Matete and others on January 12, 2015.