Zambia Passport Cancellation: What Notice 1421 Actually Does

The Zambia passport cancellation affecting six government critics does more than stop them boarding a plane. The six documents are no longer valid for identification, for travel or for any official purpose, and banks, border authorities and law enforcement agencies have been…

The Zambia passport cancellation affecting six government critics does more than stop them boarding a plane. The six documents are no longer valid for identification, for travel or for any official purpose, and banks, border authorities and law enforcement agencies have been directed not to recognise them.

That instruction is carried by Gazette Notice No. 1421 of 2026, which gives the cancellations their legal effect.

They are Emmanuel Mwamba, a former ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative to the African Union; Emmanuel Jay Banda, the former Petauke Central member of parliament; Binwell Mpundu; Peter Kaiser Zulu, who served as political advisor to the late President Edgar Lungu; Sishuwa Sishuwa, a historian and academic; and Lillian Mutambo, a blogger.

Government has cited national security as the basis for the decision.

What The Passport Cancellation Notice Actually Does

The notice warns members of the public, government institutions, financial institutions, border control authorities, law enforcement agencies and other relevant bodies against accepting or relying on the documents.

“Any use of any cancelled documents may constitute an offence,” it reads.

The holders have been directed to surrender the passports immediately to the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship, the Immigration Department or the Zambia Police Service.

The operative reach of the passport cancellation extends well beyond the airport.

A passport in Zambia functions as a primary identity document. Voiding it for identification and for any official purpose affects the holder’s ability to open or operate a bank account, to complete transactions requiring identity verification, to register for services and to satisfy any requirement where a passport is the document presented.

For holders resident outside the country, the cancellation also unsettles the documentation on which their legal status abroad may rest.

The Grounds The Law Allows For Passport Cancellation

Amnesty International has argued that the cancellations are not permitted by the law under which they were made.

Zambia’s Passports and Citizenship legislation permits passport cancellation on specified grounds. Those grounds include loss of citizenship, obtaining a passport through fraud or misrepresentation, certain forms of passport fraud, specified convictions, and death.

Political criticism of, or opposition to, the government is not in itself among the stated grounds.

Vongai Chikwanda, the organisation’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, said the decision breaches the right to freedom of movement guaranteed under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“The arbitrary cancellation of passports by Zambian authorities is a violation of international human rights law,” Ms Chikwanda said.

She said the effect is to strip the holders of their legal and social identity and leave them in a condition of de facto statelessness, and called on the authorities to revoke the cancellations, restore the passports and remedy any resulting harm.

Government has not responded to that legal argument. No statement has identified which of the specified statutory grounds was relied upon in each case.

The Case Made For The Passport Cancellation

Within Zambia, the decision has drawn support from governance figures and from an opposition leader, who frame it as a proportionate response to conduct they regard as having passed beyond legitimate criticism.

GEARS executive director Patrick Kaumba said the exercise of rights carries limits.

“It is quite important for people to enjoy their rights, there was need to be cautious and observe acceptable standards when criticising or making suggestions without promoting hate speech,” Mr Kaumba said.

He said insults, open threats against President Hakainde Hichilema and hate speech associated with some of the individuals had gone out of proportion, which made the decision understandable. Some material attributed to them bordered on hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, while other material promoted regionalism, he said.

“When people are propagating the issue of human rights and so on, it is also important to recognise that where one’s rights end, it is where others’ rights begin,” Mr Kaumba said.

Governance commentator Wesley Miyanda said Zambians in the diaspora carry the same obligation as those at home to protect the image of the country.

He said Government had made efforts to work with other countries to secure the return of some of the individuals, particularly those facing pending court cases, without success, and had therefore moved on the documents. He advised the holders to return home and answer any pending charges.

Mr Miyanda said the passport cancellation does not affect citizenship.

“A passport is not a right. It is a privilege the state extends to you, and it can withdraw that privilege when it decides you have become a threat,” he said.

That formulation is the heart of the disagreement. The question is not whether the State may withdraw a passport, which the legislation plainly allows, but whether it may do so on a ground the legislation does not list.

United Prosperous and Peaceful Zambia leader Charles Chanda said critics of the decision should weigh the President’s responsibility to safeguard national security, and urged them to trust the process.

“The Government knows what it is doing. Let us be patient and see how this unfolds,” Mr Chanda said.

How The Passport Cancellation Would Be Tested

No challenge to Gazette Notice No. 1421 has been filed in the courts.

A holder seeking to contest the passport cancellation would move the High Court for judicial review, a procedure that examines whether a decision of a public body was made within the power the law confers. It would require the State to identify the ground relied upon and demonstrate that the ground fits the statute.

That is the only forum in which the question can be settled, and it converts a public argument into a matter of record.

Until an application is filed, or until Government sets out the basis for each cancellation, the six documents remain void for every purpose the notice lists, and the institutions named in it stand on instruction not to honour them.