Despite threats of lawsuits from politicians, the Zambian government has refused to extend the deadline for the SIM card registration exercise that is coming to an end this month.

Zambians have up to December 31, 2013 to register their SIM cards or have them de-activated.

The minister of Communications Yamfwa Mukanga said the Zambian government will not extend the SIM card registration exercise and will block those that have not been registered.

The minister further said that November 15 this year was the date from which anyone procuring, selling or activating SIM cards would be liable for prosecution if they did not provide a valid identification card.

“We will not extend the deadline for SIM card registration. I therefore wish to request all those that have not registered their SIM cards to quickly do so and avoid being inconvenienced come January 1, 2014,” Mukanga said.

Zambia’s political opposition, the Heritage Party, has threatened to sue the Zambian government if it goes ahead with its planned SIM card registration deadline.

The Heritage party said the Zambian government should be discouraged from going ahead with the deadline amid calls for a number of adjustments.

The party has warned that should the Zambian government go ahead with the planned deadline, it could lodge a court case against the SIM card registration exercise because the deadline on SIM card registration was based on reason that just over four million people had registered their SIM cards.

Zambia has about nine million mobile subscribers. The country’s SIM card registration exercise that started last year has been marred with apathy.