Painting of a President Lungu by Caleb Chisha "Eagle One, Oil On Canvas."

THREE Zambia National Service officers have applied for leave of the High Court to commence judicial review proceedings against President Lungu’s decision to retire them in national interest for punishing officer cadets who did not clean their dormitories.

Major Pumulo Ngenda, Captain Mubanga Chinyimba and Captain Simeon Sitali are seeking an order of certiorari to quash the President’s decision to retire them.

They want an order of mandamus compelling the state to reinstate them and an order of prohibition stopping the government from removing them from the payroll.

The trio is also seeking a declaration that the decision by the President dated April 12, 2021 for dismissal from public service was illegal.

The defense personnel have cited the Attorney General as the respondent in the matter.

According to their affidavit verifying facts relied on for leave to apply for judicial review, Ngenda, Mubanga and Sitali said in January 2021, they were assigned to the ZNS training camp situated in Kafue as training instructors.

They said Maj Ngenda was the academy commander whilst Capt Mubanga and Sitali were college commanders.

The three said the training camp had about 40 training instructors and 342 officer cadets.

“Our roles as training instructors was to ensure the transformation of the officer cadets into disciplined combat militant personnel,” they said.

The plaintiffs explained that on March 8, 2021, during inspection, it was discovered that officer cadets did not clean their sleeping quarters to which Maj Ngenda instructed Capt Mubanga and Sitali to cancel classes and instead ensure that the officer cadets clean their sleeping quarters.

The two captains ordered for the punishment of the officer cadets, which resulted in some of the cadets sustaining bruises on their arms.

“On March 9, 2021, the director Military Intelligence visited the training camp to collect a report on what transpired the previous day. On or about March 10, 2021, Capts Mubanga and Sitali were transferred from the training camp to the ZNS head quarters administrative pool in Lusaka and submitted reports of what transpired on March 8, 2021,” the plaintiffs said.

“On April 12, 2021, the applicants received letters of retirement from the public service in public interest, under the hand of the President of the Republican of Zambia.”

The three contended that that the decision to retire them was taken as a punitive measure as they were neither charged with any disciplinary offence nor were they given an opportunity to be heard and that no justification was given for their dismissal.

They added that they have not been paid their pension benefits from the date of retirement to date.

“The applicants will contend that the decision by the respondent, through the President, to retire them was unreasonable and irrational, or so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could ever come to it. And made without justified grounds,” said the ZNS officers.

They further want an order to stay the decision of the President dated April 12, 2021 to retire them from public service pending determination of the matter.

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