Justice Minister Given Lubinda yesterday said that the 90-days declaration of the threatened state of public emergency which has been in force since 11th July expired at midnight last night.
In a ministerial statement to parliament, Mr Lubinda said that the effect of the expiration of the period relating to threatened state of public emergency is that the application of the preservation of public security Act, Chapter 112 of the laws of Zambia, and the preservation of public security regulations Statutory Instrument number 55 of 2017 will be suspended.
Mr Lubinda said that the declaration made on 11th July 2017 will therefore in accordance with Article 31 duly expire at midnight tonight.
Mr Lubinda, however, stated that the expiration of the state of threatened state of emergency is not and should not be misconstrued to be an invitation for any person to break the law, as other laws still remain in force.
He has since implored Zambians to continue to be patriotism, diligent, observant, peaceful and law abiding citizens as they go about their daily lives.
Asked during follow up questions how much money was spent on security personnel during the period of the threatened state of public emergency, Mr Lubinda said there was no extra allocation of money as a result of the invocation of Article 31, but that all ministries involved operated within their budgets.
President Edgar Lungu on 5th July, 2017 invoked Article 31 following a spate of suspected arson cases targeting mainly markets, which left City Market in Lusaka gutted.
Big Brother IMF is watching. Sudden change of mind or else Zambia will fail the good governance litmus tests.
That’s good news. The police need retraining in all areas of operations. Apart from tarnishing our bad name further what was achieved by this threatened state of emergency?
THANK YOU ..CAALO CESU ICI MAYENDELE
We did not see any change during this period. What was it for?
They bought second hand refurbished fire engines at $42 million which equipment is actually $14 million when brand new! Where have you been ba Chewe wesu????
Remember public places being gutted?
After having achieved nothing except harassment of the innocent, mulekwatako insoni bangwele imwe.
Go and visit your tribesmen in prison. Hundreds of them were thrown behind bars in connection with the fires.
So what did you Pure Foolish losers learn from this *****ic indigenous move????
Kkkkk public emergency put some people behind bars
Yayaya anyway ni zee public emergency!!