Maravi

Sata backs Levy over EU/AU summit 'boycott'

Sata backs Levy over EU/AU summit 'boycott'
By Chibaula Silwamba
Thursday September 27, 2007 [04:00]

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata has supported President Levy Mwanawasa and other SADC Presidents’ decision to boycott the European Union/African Union summit if Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is not allowed to attend. And Sata urged The Post to establish jjounalism training school. Meanwhile, Sata has advised the government to give tax concessions to Zambian companies the way it is doing to foreign companies.

Addressing 25 trainee journalists participating in the fourth training programme at The Post’s head office in Lusaka on Tuesday, Sata said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s opposition to President Mugabe attending an EU/AU summit in Portugal in December was a clear case of racisms

He said that since European leaders were succumbing to Prime Minister Brown, Africans should also support President Mugabe.

“If those who are inviting them want to succumb to Gordon, we also support our brother. They are supporting their white brother Gordon, we must also support our black brother, Mugabe,” Sata said. “There is clear racism here.”

He urged Africans in general and Zambians in particular to understand and appreciate the problems between Britain and Zimbabwe.

“Now, is the quarrel between Gordon and Mugabe going to engulf all of us?” Sata asked. “As we are talking, we have allowed for the last 15 years these people foreign companies to get away our taxes, so if tomorrow I come and impose taxes, what is happening to Mugabe is going to happen to me. People who are exporting have not been paying enough taxes for the last 15 years and if I reduce your taxes and tax them because I want to protect you then what is happening to Mugabe is going to happen to me.”

He also observed that most African governments were relying on development policies from other continents.

“We don’t have our own policies, we rely on donated policies and those donated policies when we are in government we implement them,” he said. “We need to articulate our own policies.”

Sata also observed that Zambia did not have a proper school where journalists could be trained.

“It is long overdue for The Post to start a permanent Zambia School of Journalism,” Sata said. “I went to London School of Journalism, I went to Manchester Press Syndicate to write for children and I also went to London Freelance Journalism. I never practiced the way you are doing but I use the knowledge to interact with the media.

What we are missing in Zambia is a deep-rooted school of journalism, which will teach all of us what is journalism. Evelyn Hone College and other little schools have tried to teach journalism but they are not producing journalists.”

He said just as the lion was afraid of a gun, politicians and other public figures were scared of a pen.

“If a politician tells you that they are not scared of a pen then they are lying, mad or dead but still walking. Every politician, organization including the church they are scared of the pen but we should know how to use the pen effectively,” Sata said.

“That is why I am urging my colleagues at The Post to start a proper school of journalism.”

Sata said there were two forms of journalism – one where journalists depended on handouts and the other where they investigated and wrote well-researched stories.
Sata urged the trainee journalists to strive to be analytical and investigative in their work if they are to reduce crime, corruption and poverty in the country. He said journalists should not shield any wrongdoer.

“If you are my relative and decide to kill the story you are not helping me and the nation, you are killing the nation,” Sata said. “If I have done something wrong, expose me. Then you’re helping me, you have to inform the nation how criminal, biased, dictatorial and corrupt I am. Once you have done that, you’re saving more people than saving me alone.”

Sata encouraged the trainees to make ‘a name’ through hard work.

“When you are digging a story, don’t rush. Do a thorough job and be persistent,” he advised. Sata advised the female journalists to be cautious and work hard.

“The game you are going into is a very dangerous game. You are vulnerable because you are beautiful and you are going to meet some men who are not only reckless but also have plenty of talk time.

Instead of getting news they will invite you for a drink and that will be your end. Even if you lament after four years, you are finished,” Sata warned. “It’s like female lawyers, they fight to make a grade; you must also fight to make a grade.”
He added that press freedom and access to information was very important although it was dependent on how that information was being used.

And Sata suggested that the government should give concessions to local companies for them to grow.

“The Post has no tax payers’ money but now it sells more than any other newspaper in Zambia and if this paper has supporting government policies and benefits of lower taxes, it would be printing in New York or London or Ndola because now they have reporters in Zimbabwe and Cuba.

If it was given the same concessions which are given to Chinese investors or Lumwana mine and Mopani mine, this newspaper would be in Dar-es-Salaam today and this would be a better ambassador in India than Mr Kelly Walubita,” Sata said.

“If we gave The Post concession, the price of the paper would come down and become more accessible to many people like a man I found in Chama district during campaigns who was reading the newspaper upside down and saying pepa lelo yawama (interesting).”
Sata said instead of promoting the Citizens Economic Empowerment, it would be better for the government to give concessions to Zambian investors.

And Sata said poverty leads to dictatorship and anti-corruption campaigners should forget about winning the fight if poverty was not reduced.

“Democracy is not about elections or perfect electoral scheme. Democracy is about poverty. People who have nothing to eat will always be cheated. Poverty develops dictatorship,” Sata said. “Unless you can reduce poverty, you can’t reduce corruption.”

Labels: AU, EU, SADC, SATA

posted by MrK @ 5:43 AM