ZIPPA urges govt to make investment-oriented policies
By Kabanda Chulu
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
ZIPPA chairman Professor Muyunda Mwanalushi has challenged the government to make policies that will result in more investment and economic freedom for the reduction of poverty.
According to the 2008 World Economic Freedom rankings released by the Canada-based Fraser Institute in conjunction with the Zambia Institute of Public Policy Analysis (ZIPPA), Zambia is placed on 51st from the previously 67th position out of 141 countries.
Commenting on the rankings, Prof Mwanalushi yesterday said Zambia’s improvement was encouraging.
“This is a clear sign that Zambia is moving ahead and if we want to create wealth and reduce poverty, we need to have policies that will result in higher growth, more investment and economic freedom,” he said.
Prof Mwanalushi said the 2008 rankings also contained new research showing the influence of economic freedom on poverty reduction.
“Countries with high levels of economic freedom are those in which people enjoy high standards of living and personal freedoms,” said Prof Mwanalushi. “Countries at the bottom of the index face the opposite situation hence their citizens are often stuck in poverty, are governed by totalitarian regimes and have few, if any, individual rights or freedoms.”
The report ranks Hong Kong number one, followed by Singapore then New Zealand. Zimbabwe, once again, has the lowest level of economic freedom among the 141 countries included in the study, followed by Angola and Myanmar.
Canada’s Fraser Institute produces the annual Economic Freedom of the World report, in co-operation with 75 independent institutes, including ZIPPA.
The Fraser Institute uses 42 different measures to create an index for ranking countries around the world, based on policies that encourage economic freedom.
Labels: MUYUNDA MWANALUSHI, ZIPPA
Read more...
Equinox Minerals secures US$80m loan facility
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
EQUINOX Minerals Limited has announced that it has secured a new US$80 million loan facility. It has also announced that insurers have agreed to pay for fire that damaged a 20-MVA transformer at its Lumwana mine plant in Solwezi.
According to a statement, Equinox Minerals was currently quantifying the losses suffered from a fire at the processing plant at its Lumwana copper project, after the project's insurance syndicate agreed to accept indemnity for the accident which simultaneously damaged the adjacent 11 kilovolts substation.
The statement also announced that Equinox Minerals Limited last Thursday signed a new $80-million loan facility which had been underwritten by Standard Bank Plc and Standard Chartered Bank and would be provided by certain members of the existing Lumwana banking syndicate.
The facility was structured on similar terms to the commercial tranche of the existing US$583. 8 million project finance debt facilities, and would enable the company to meet additional working capital requirements that resulted from the delayed start-up.
Equinox stated that the establishment of the new loan facility was seen as a better option to drawing down on its existing US $45 million contingent funding facility, as it would ensure that the company maintained appropriate levels of liquidity, while limiting shareholder dilution.
The Lumwana mine is expected to produce an average of 169 000 tonnes per year of copper metal contained in concentrates for the first six years of its 37-year life-of-mine. The commissioning of the mine was delayed from last July to this December after fire gutted one of the key transformers.
Labels: EQUINOX, MINING
Read more...
Mulongoti's threats on The Post
By Hamusonde Vinwell
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
The statement by Mulongoti that he will close The Post does not augur well. It is a shame that he can stoop so low and fight The Post who are doing a good and objective job of exposing malpractices.
lt is clear that he (Mulongoti) doesn’t know that he will lose his job as the opposition are doing very well in their campaigns.
The Post must not be intimidated by a man who has no political future as he is just a nominated MP.
We need peace now more than anytime before in the history of Zambian politics.
The police must ensure peace, quietness, stability and order. How does the police explain a situation where the MMD cadres taunted guns at people at Pamodzi Hotel on Thursday?
Arrest the culprits irrespective of party affiliations now.
As to The Post, I say keep up the good work and do not be threatened by the last kicks of a dying horse.
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=46799
Teta is annoying
By Justice
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
Teta’s comment that Chiluba is not a plunderer is disheartening.
His statement is undermining the amount of deprivation that the Zambian people have suffered due to the theft by the MMD government under the leadership of Chiluba.
Teta is taking the Zambian people for granted by passing such comments which are so annoying.
The plunder of national resources during Chiluba's time is all before the face of the nation and where does Teta get the audacity to pass such a statement?
Do we expect the similar defence of thieves in case his glorified candidate RB becomes president? What we are looking for as Zambians is a set of leaders who will call a spade a spade and stand up to defend the destiny of this nation.
The least the Zambian people expect is the recurrence of the plunder of national resources which has contributed to poverty in the country and a perpetual defence of plunders.
Let us unite and reject the wrong seed or weeds like Teta and his team out of leadership to save the nation from another set of greedy people.
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=46800
Poor education policies
By Concerned citizen
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
Mulongoti should not insult people who have never been able to proceed with education because of poor government policies.
Quoting yesterday’s Post in a story headlined ‘Rupiah vows to neutralise Sata’ Mulongoti is quoted as saying "From what I know Sata went to school up to standard four.
Imagine in this era where people use computers, is it really good as a country to vote for a grade four as Republican president?" asked Mulongoti.
It is not by our will that we don’t further our education. The governments have favoured the rich so much at the expense of the poor.
Build schools and give us policies that will give the best education to our children so that they can run as presidents. In fact, you are still studying and if I may ask, where were you (Mulongoti) when your agemates did their education?
What Mulongoti should know is that he was talking and soliciting votes from the same people who have never even been to school.
Build schools and universities if you need leaders with sound education.
The future is now and let's face it. Without good policies, Zambia will continue being ruled by the same old people who lack wisdom and respect for each other.
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=46802
MMD stinks corruption
By Red Hammer
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
The MMD government under RB is an embarrassment for the country. This government has so far demonstrated that they cannot continue late President Levy Mwanawasa’s vision.
Actually they have never understood that vision because when Levy was seriously sick, they decided to increase their salaries.
When Levy died, they ignored his wish. The reason is simple; they did not want someone of high integrity who will block them from looting the country.
Magande was a danger for them and to allow him as a presidential candidate was not in their selfish interest. To them, the best candidate was supposed to be a corrupt person, and Rupiah Banda was the best for them in this case; but the worst for Zambia's interest.
One needs not to be intelligent to see the characters surrounding RB. I think people should vote wisely this time around. We should not allow politicians to take us for granted. It will be sad to vote for MMD just because they have distributed sugar and mealie-meal.
The distribution of sugar was a mockery! Have we committed sins because we are poor? Why should they come with sugar only when there is an election? Fellow countrymen and women, when we suffer every day in our houses they do not come with sugar to see us.
Hospitals have no drugs, teachers in rural areas sleep in huts. They give us K200,000 as housing allowances when they know well that a decent house can only cost more than K750,000.
Because we are hungry, we will not refuse sugar, mealie-meal, T-shirts and chitenge materials, but we should not vote for them. They have insulted us enough. They have insulted our intelligence! Brothers, and sisters, vote them out of power. They are corrupt; they stink with corruption.
Labels: CORRUPTION, MIKE MULONGOTI, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA
Read more...
Rupiah and Levy's legacy on corruption
By Editor
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
Sometimes the character of a person can be judged by the type of people who hang around him, who support him, who cheer him on, who praise him. If corrupt people support someone, praise someone, want to hang around someone, then questions must be asked about the character of that person. There is need to find out what it is that is attracting corrupt people to that person and why he is entertaining them.
The statements coming from Rupiah Banda’s camp on corruption are frightening. When Levy Mwanawasa was alive, it was very clear where he stood with corrupt elements like Frederick Chiluba. And even then, they knew very well where they stood with Levy – they didn’t want him in any way. At the last elections, Chiluba supported Michael Sata and said they were “voting out the bad and voting in the good”. In this case, the good was Sata and the bad was Levy.
Today, Sata seems to become the bad and Rupiah the good in Chiluba’s eyes. What is it that Rupiah has done or represents that has earned him Chiluba’s support or love? What is it that Sata has done or now represents that has earned him Chiluba’s disapproval or hate?
It is common knowledge that Chiluba represented the citadel of corruption in this country. It is not speculation to say Chiluba is corrupt because this government, the MMD government, took Chiluba to court in London and he was found, together with fellow conspirators, to have defrauded the Zambian government of US $41 million.
This judgment is going through the registration process in our courts of law. And today, this man has become the darling, a political partner of Rupiah’s campaign team.
Why?
On October 5, 2006, Tetamashimba, Rupiah’s election agent, said the MMD did not want to be associated with Chiluba because he “made the country to be bad”.
This was after Chiluba himself said it was an abomination for him to rejoin the MMD and showed public support for Sata in the 2006 elections. Tetamashimba made it very clear that they “don’t want to be associated with people who made the country to be bad”.
And on October 5, 2007, this same Tetamashimba said the MMD was very comfortable without Chiluba in its midst. And on May 18, 2007, Tetamashimba warned that since Levy had won a second term without Chiluba’s support “things will be very tough for him”. Tetamashimba also praised the London High Court which ruled that Chiluba had defrauded the Zambian government of US $41 million.
But last Wednesday, this same Tetamashimba in what appears to be a gigantic U-turn or change of heart, told journalists that Chiluba was not a plunderer but was in court facing “allegations and not truths”. Why this U-turn?
And last week, Mike Mulongoti, Rupiah’s campaign manager, said “Chiluba still carries influence in the country and any party which is wise will want to have him around”. Mulongoti also said that Chiluba was a citizen and was free to join any political party of his choice and “has got an interest in whoever becomes president”.
Is this a question of “follow the leader”? When Levy was alive and not entertaining Chiluba, nobody heard Tetamashimba or Mulongoti say anything positive about him. Tetamashimba dismissed Chiluba as a corrupt man. Hardly a month after Levy’s death, Chiluba is back as a darling of the MMD government. What does this mean?
Does it mean it was Levy who stood in the way between them and Chiluba? Does it mean it was only Levy who had nothing to do with plunderers like Chiluba and now that Levy is gone, Chiluba is free to come back into the fold?
Is this the new policy of the MMD being championed by Rupiah? Does it mean that if Rupiah becomes president, Chiluba and his tandem of thieves will be back in the MMD and will be free to participate in the governance of this country through the MMD – a thing they couldn’t do under Levy?
Is this a reunion of birds of the same feather? Is this what they mean when they say “every creature prefers its own kind, and people are no different; just as animals of the same species flock together, so people keep company with people like themselves?”
Some are saying there has to be forgiveness. We don’t totally disagree. Forgiveness is and will continue to be part of our lives. But so is punishment.
Wrongdoers, even in God’s scheme of things, are punished until they show contrition. Sinners go to hell while the sinless end up in heaven.
There is even purgatory where those with some issues, lesser or pardonable sins, are placed before they can be admitted to heaven. This is not to say God is cruel or unforgiving.
If even in God’s scheme of things impunity is not allowed or tolerated, what more in human affairs? Those who looted public resources to enrich themselves did not do so by accident.
Their actions were deliberate and not a product of oversight. It is accidental wrongs or oversight that may deserve instant forgiveness when one immediately shows contrition or asks for forgiveness.
And normally before one is forgiven, there is admission of wrongdoing on their part. As far as we know, Chiluba has not pleaded guilty to any of the charges he has been found with a case to answer. And he is still fighting the registration of the London High Court judgment.
And this is the man Rupiah and his sponsors want to embrace! How can we explain this? Maybe the easiest way to look at this is by examining and analysing the behaviour and conduct of Rupiah and his friends.
The story that we carried on Wednesday from an October 1991 edition of the Times of Zambia reveals a lot about what Rupiah, his sponsors and Chiluba have in common. Corruption and bribery seems to be a thread that binds them together. Even when one looks at their campaign methods, they are not different from those of Chiluba. Brown envelopes used to fly around in times like these under Chiluba.
The same seems to be happening under Rupiah. Under Chiluba, people used to be ‘rewarded’ for supporting him, especially under his third term scheme. We are seeing this same practice with Rupiah.
It is said that if you do no wrong, no wrong will ever come to you. It is also said that do not plant seeds of injustice, dishonesty; you may reap a bigger harvest than you expect.
It is usually advised that “don’t commit any crime against the general public, and don’t disgrace yourself among your fellow citizens. If you live dangerously, it will kill you. A dishonest person will be burdened down with troubles”.
Chiluba has been found with a case to answer in our courts of law for corruption. This means there is a good prima facie case against him and the charges put against him are good and whether he is convicted or acquitted will depend on the defence he puts up.
Is this the man Rupiah and his campaign team should be courting? What does this tell us about the judgements, the characters or personalities of Rupiah and those who surround him?
Surely, can one go to sleep peacefully, confident that Levy’s legacy on the fight against corruption will be preserved by Rupiah and his friends if they win the October 30 elections? What legacy of Levy on fighting corruption can be preserved by these characters in the company of Chiluba?
It is very clear Rupiah’s agenda on corruption is different from that of Levy. If it were the same, Chiluba wouldn’t come anywhere near them because he doesn’t like people who talk about fighting corruption.
With Rupiah, Chiluba feels safe and in the right company, among friends. It is understandable why Tetamashimba is today defending Chiluba and welcoming him on their side. It also explains why Mulongoti is today saying that “Chiluba still carries influence in the country and any party which is wise will want to have him around”. To corrupt people influence is everything, it takes precedence over everything else, including principles.
The fight against corruption can easily be traded by these characters on the altar of political expedience, can be easily traded for influence just to help them win an election.
It is clear that for Rupiah and his sponsors, anything that can help them win this election should be embraced regardless of how bad, how abominable it may be. But such methods are Rupiah’s methods.
This seems to have been exactly his attitude in October 1991 when he tried to use bribes for the purposes of winning an election.
It is also clear that these characters are nothing but proponents of politics which have nothing to do with the real interests of the people of this country but with their own personal concerns. But they will always find justifications and fools to defend their treacherous politics, corrupt methods and ridiculous political deals.
They don’t seem to be capable of any approach to politics other than that of lies, deceit, manipulation and bribery.
But they have people who are ready to defend all this, who are ready to support all this. With all certainty the opportunists – who are today trying to defend wrong things, wrongdoings, bad records because they are being done by people who are privileged, who hold the reins of power and seem to be likely to continue in office – with their political cowardice will survive to evidence their own stupidity.
However, in all ages and under all circumstances, there will always exist abundant reasons not to fight vice, wrongdoings, corruption or misrule. But that will be the only way for our nation not to make progress.
We are advised in Proverbs 1:10-19: “Son, when sinners tempt you, don’t give in. Suppose they say, ‘Come on; let’s find someone to kill! Let’s attack some innocent people for the fun of it! They may be alive and well when we find them, but they will be dead when we are through with them! We’ll find all kinds of riches and fill our houses with loot! Come on and join us, and we will all share what we steal.’
Son, don’t go with people like that. Stay away from them. They can’t wait to do something bad.
They are always ready to kill. It does no good to spread a net when the bird you want to catch is watching, but men like that are setting a trap for themselves, a trap in which they will die. Robbery always claims the life of the robber…”
The signs are there, it is up to us to read them. The advice is there, it is up to us to heed it. The lessons are there, it is up to us to learn them. The choices are there, it is up to us to make the right ones.
Labels: MWANAWASA, RUPIAH BANDA
Read more...
Rupiah will do anything to enter State House - Sata
By Patson Chilemba in Chinsali
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata has said Vice-President Rupiah Banda will do anything to get to State House even on the back of supporting corruption. Commenting on Vice-President Banda's campaign agent Benny Tetamashimba's statement that former president Frederick Chiluba was not a plunderer, Sata on Thursday said the MMD was contradicting itself.
Sata said the contradictions in the MMD camp had made their commitment to the fight against corruption questionable.
He said this was so because Vice-President Banda was like a headless chicken, which moved aimlessly in any direction.
Sata said Vice-President Banda had no direction and would do anything to get to State House even on the back of supporting corruption, if doing so could help win him votes.
"If they say one thing when president Levy Mwanawasa is around and do another when Mwanawasa is dead, it becomes very difficult. And Rupiah, when he's talking of legacy of Mwanawasa, what legacy is he talking about?" Sata asked.
"It is the MMD government which took Frederick Chiluba to the London Court. It's the MMD government which is taking Chiluba to the local courts here where he has been found with a case to answer. How does the same MMD today come and say no?"
Sata challenged the MMD to state publicly if Chiluba had promised to assist them in the campaigns so that that they would in return drop his corruption cases.
"What type of human beings are they? Rupiah Banda doesn't stand on anything. He moves aimlessly. He doesn't believe in anything. So he's pushed left, right and centre," Sata said.
PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said Vice-President Banda was not straight in his dealings and that he risked being arrested. He said people like Tetamashimba and information minister Mike Mulongoti desperately wanted Vice-President Banda to win so that they could loot the country's coffers by receiving hefty salaries and allowances.
Lubinda said Mulongoti would perish should he attempt to stifle press freedom.
Lubinda also advised pastor Nevers Mumba to stop cheating God because his ways were not straight.
Last Wednesday, Tetamashimba told journalists that Chiluba was not a plunderer, but was in court facing "allegations and not truths."
But on October 5, 2006, Tetamashimba, was quoted in The Post as saying the MMD did not want to be associated with Chiluba because he "made the country to be bad."
And in 2006 during campaigns for the general elections, Sata said he would not arrest and prosecute Chiluba for plunder of national resources.
Sata, who was drumming up support for himself and parliamentary candidates for Luapula Province in Mansa, said people like former intelligence chief Xavier Chungu, Chiluba and former Zambia National Commercial Bank managing director Samuel Musonda should not be arrested but should instead be made to explain how they used plundered money on president Mwanawasa.
"I won't arrest them. I will only ask them to explain how they used the money plundered on Levy. Chiluba needs to tell us the money he spent on Mwanawaya Mwanawasa," Sata said.
Earlier, addressing a huge rally in Chinsali Central on Thursday, Sata said most endorsements Vice-President Banda had received from chiefs were not genuine because many were paid to do so. He said he feared visiting chiefs during election periods because he did not want to cheat them.
"Because visiting chiefs you are going to cheat the chief and when going there you are supposed to send 'talk time'," Sata said to a loud applause from Chinsali residents.
However, Sata said once elected president, he would return the authority of chiefs so that they could oversee most developmental projects in their areas.
He said it was sad that people were living like they were in a borrowed country because of the acute suffering.
Chimwemwe PF member of parliament Willie Nsanda urged Chinsali residents to become angry with their suffering and vote out MMD. He warned people that Zambia risked going back to UNIP days should people make the mistake of voting for Vice-President Banda.
"We have got some development in urban areas and people there don't want MMD, but why you people here?" asked Nsanda.
On Saviour Chishimba's endorsement of Vice-President Banda, Lubinda challenged Chishimba to resign from PF and see if he could retain his seat.
Meanwhile, Chinsali PF member of parliament Christopher Mulenga knelt before a huge crowd of residents and apologised for having gone against the party directive by going to the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).
Mulenga also thanked Sata for being fatherly and embracing him back to PF. Chinsali district was on Thursday a hive of activity. People had converged in numbers at the rally site, hours before the rally started.
Sata and his entourage were welcomed into Chinsali by enthusiastic crowds, which wanted to catch a glimpse of the PF leader and listen to his campaign address.
Labels: RUPIAH BANDA, SATA
Read more...
Habasonda condemns intimidation of Lukuku
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:01]
SOUTHERN Africa Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) executive director Lee Habasonda has expressed concern at the levels of desperation by the government to endanger the lives of people willing to speak the truth.
And UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma said it was not surprising that Vice-President Rupiah Banda's camp had resorted to draconian methods to intimidate other political players.
Commenting on the revelations by National Revolution Party (NRP) former secretary general James Lukuku that he had been receiving threats on his life following his recent revelations that the Vice-President paid NRP to endorse his candidature ahead of the October 30 presidential elections, Habasonda said while the matter was subject to investigations, nobody should condone the threats on Lukuku.
He said the security system in Zambia was supposed to protect citizens and not threaten them.
Habasonda said the role of the security was not to protect one individual or group but investigate matters further.
"Their role is to protect the welfare of society, in fact to protect the weak. The state security have a duty to ensure they understand and prepare for whatever government that will come into power," he said.
He said it was criminal for all those involved to threaten to silence other people for their wrongdoings.
Habasonda said it was time Zambia moved to a culture where people admit when they make mistakes.
"Instead of having private meetings, the security wings must investigate and tell Zambians what is going on instead of intimidating people," Habasonda said.
And Kakoma said political parties should avoid using violence and threats as a way of winning the election.
He said Zambia was a democratic country and political parties must use peaceful means to convince the electorate to vote for them.
"But it is not surprising that the RB Rupiah Banda camp is resorting to such archiac and draconian methods of intimidating other political players because they are actually using all the tactics that RB knows from his old UNIP days and it is also an indication that if RB becomes president, he is going to use dictatorship and violence against his opponents. So what is happening to Lukuku should not just be seen as action against him but political," he said.
Kakoma said Vice-President Banda's camp had already threatened to beat anybody who mentioned PF president Michael Sata and UPND's president Hakainde Hichilema's name.
Kakoma said these were intimidation tactics and Vice-President Banda's camp would stop at nothing and were even prepared to kill to win.
On Thursday, Lukuku revealed that he had been receiving threats following his revelations last week.
Lukuku said New Generation Party (NGP) president Humphrey Siulapwa - who has endorsed Vice-President Banda's candidature - had informed him that his life was under threat hence he Siulapwa was ready to organise a press conference at which Lukuku would denounce The Post and apologise to Vice-President Banda.
Labels: JAMES LUKUKU, LEE HABASONDE, SACCORD
Read more...
Teta's remarks on Chiluba were without thought, says Lifuka
By Maluba Jere and Jack Zimba
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
TRANSPARENCY International Zambia (TIZ) president Reuben Lifuka has said it is unfortunate that the seriousness of corruption allegations is seemingly being sacrificed at the altar of political expediency.
Commenting on Vice-President Rupiah Banda’s campaign agent Benny Tetamashimba’s remarks that former president Frederick Chiluba was neither a thief nor a plunderer until he is convicted by the courts of law, Lifuka said the reputation that Zambia had gained particularly internationally lies in the determination to investigate and prosecute corruption including high profile cases of economic plunder and corruption.
Lifuka said Tetamashimba’s statements on corruption cases involving Chiluba were without thought to the broader consequences.
“I would like to caution the political parties engaged in the election campaigns for the forthcoming Presidential election not to advertently affect the progress that this country has made in the fight against corruption,”
Lifuka said. “It is in this light that we find Honourable Tetamashimba’s comments on former president Chiluba describing him as neither a thief nor plunderer a thrift too casual and without thought to the broader consequences of his statement. It is this same minister who is on record as having praised the private media for exposing former president Chiluba’s alleged abuse of office and corruption.
“Today, for clearly political considerations and gains, Honourable Tetamashimba has U-turned and his position seems to be oblivious of the public anger that accompanied the revelation of economic plunder made by the late president Levy Mwanawasa during a special sitting of Parliament in 2002 which resulted in the removal of immunity of former president Chiluba. Honourable Tetamashimba was part of the parliamentarians who unanimously voted in favour of removing the immunity of Dr Chiluba simply on the strength of the evidence presented by president Mwanawasa.”
Lifuka urged all political parties to resist the temptation to betray the hard work of the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Judiciary, the Task force, the media, civil society and the general public who he said were waiting patiently for these cases to be concluded.
“We hope that in the aftermath of the elections, we will not be treated to a spectacle where corruption cases are dropped for unexplained reasons,” said Lifuka.
“We remind the political parties not to be entangled in a web simply because they have to repay some benefactors for the support they rendered during the campaigns. There is life after the elections and the public statements issued with careless abandon will surely come to haunt whoever utters them. We ask for responsibility, maturity and measured comments from all political parties even when the aroma of power is too strong to resist.”
Lifuka said the government and senior government officials in particular needed to be consistent in their statements or rhetoric vis-à-vis the corruption cases before the courts of law.
“Admittedly, Dr Chiluba’s cases are still before the courts of law and need to run their full course, and there are concerns about the selective nature of these cases. However, it will be wrong for any of the political parties to start using his stature and his court cases as a political tool.
At no point should the political leaders forget that these are cases which are premised on allegations which run against the interests of the general public, public resources and not personal or political party resources are alleged to have been abused or stolen,” he said.
Lifuka also said he did not recall Tetamashimba challenging his colleagues not to forget that Chiluba was innocent until proved guilty before the courts of law.
“Has it taken him six years to realise that Dr Chiluba is neither a thief nor plunderer until the courts of law convict him? What is interesting is that Hon Tetamashimba has been a fervent advocate for protecting the legacy of president Mwanawasa but he seemingly now wants to expunge from this legacy,” Lifuka said.
Tetamashimba last Wednesday told journalists that Chiluba was not a plunderer, but was in court facing “allegations and not truths.”
But on October 5, 2006, Tetamashimba, was quoted in The Post as saying the MMD did not want to be associated with the former president because he “made the country to be bad.”
This was after Chiluba said it would be an abomination for him to rejoin the ruling party and showed public support for Sata in the 2006 general elections.
“There is nobody in MMD national executive committee who can go to him and ask him to come back,” Tetamashimba said. “We don’t want to be associated with people who made the country to be bad.”
And on October 5, 2007, Tetamashimba said the MMD was very comfortable without Chiluba in its midst.
“In fact the country’s economy is doing very well under the New Deal government as compared to the period when he was leading this country,” he said.
In The Post edition of May 18, 2007, Tetamashimba said MMD would intensify the prosecution process of people who plundered national resources.
“There will be no excuse for Chiluba now. Chiluba has been campaigning for Sata, a sign that he is fit and healed,” Tetamashimba said. “We will not tolerate lame excuses over his heart problems.
“Especially that President Mwanawasa has won the second term without Chiluba’s support; things will be tough for him.”
Tetamashimba also hailed the judgment by the London High Court in 2007 which found Chiluba and his co-accused guilty of fraud amounting to US$41 million through the BK Facility and Zamtrop Account in London.
Judge Peter Smith, who presided over the case, ordered Chiluba and others to pay about 85 per cent of the total sum within 14 days upon service. The London court upheld the claim by the Attorney General of Zambia and found Chiluba and others liable and ordered that defendants compensate or account for a total amount of approximately US$41 million.
Tetamashimba said the judgment had come at the right time and would teach government workers in the habit of stealing a lesson.
Tetamashimba encouraged journalists to write about politicians’ thefts even when they were in government.
“If we are thieves, talk about us when we are in government,” he said.
Tetamashimba thanked The Post for exposing Chiluba’s plunder despite the arrests made during his government when the paper wrote that Chiluba was a thief.
Labels: BENNY TETAMASHIMBA, CHILUBA, RUEBEN LIFUKA, TIZ
Read more...
Fr Bwalya demands Mulongoti's resignation over Post threats
By Mutuna Chanda in Kitwe and Maluba Jere in Lusaka
Saturday October 04, 2008 [04:00]
INFORMATION minister Mike Mulongoti's threat of closing The Post is enough ground for him to resign, former MISA Zambia chairperson Fr Frank Bwalya has said. And United Party for National Development (UPND) stated that Mulongoti's threats on The Post were a clear recipe of anarchy and a serious sign of what Zambians should expect. In an interview, Fr Bwalya said if the government was aggrieved, there were proper channels that they could use to seek redress.
"That kind of attitude is archaic and does not belong to today's democratic dispensation," Fr Bwalya said.
"Those threats are enough to demand that Mulongoti resign. If they are aggrieved by what The Post is writing, there are adequate channels to seek redress. If this attitude is allowed, another person will come up and say 'let us close such and such radio station and newspaper' and there will be no freedom of the press to talk about. This is an affront to press freedom."
However, Fr Bwalya said The Post should operate within the law.
And UPND in a statement noted that the threats by Mulongoti were a clear manifestation of the looming dictatorship in the event that Vice-President Rupiah Banda won the October 30 election.
The party stated that the threats were an indication of the desperation in the Vice-President's camp.
"The United Party for National Development is alarmed by the statement attributed to one nominated member of parliament and government spokesperson Mike Mulongoti threatening violence against any perceived opponents of the ruling party presidential candidate, Rupiah Banda," it stated.
They stated that no matter what threats Mulongoti issued, Zambians would prevail and defend the media that informs them.
"Instead of threatening the media, the Banda campaign committee should argue with facts to the issues as laid bare in the media," it stated.
The party also expressed sadness over the conduct of former works and supply minister Ludwig Sondashi for threatening violence against anyone who mentioned names of opposition leaders in his presence.
"Although we doubt his capacity to unleash any blows, we condemn such threats of violence," it stated. "We are aware that Sondashi who is threatening violence is supposed to be a constitutional lawyer... His violent behaviour shouldn't be brought into the public arena," stated the UPND.
On Wednesday on Radio Lyambai in Mongu during a good governance programme sponsored by MISA, Mulongoti threatened to close The Post if it did not cooperate with the government and the courts of law. Mulongoti said government would use the already available laws in the statute books to revoke The Post's licence so that it could stop operating.
And on Monday during a rally at Solwezi showgrounds, Mulongoti, in apparent reference to The Post, said after the MMD wins the presidential election on October 30, they would ask the Vice-President to go out for a while so that on his return, Vice-President Banda would find all the problems sorted out.
Labels: FRANK BWALYA, MIKE MULONGOTI, THE POST
Read more...
Tonga music festival
By Katwishi Bwalya in Monze
Sunday September 28, 2008 [04:00]
AS an experienced hunter goes out hunting, he at times comes back without a kill, this was the direct interpretation of the Tonga saying; Muwezyi Kozwa Kobula which was the theme for this year’s All Tonga Musical Festival held at Chikuni in Monze district in Southern Province.
The All-Tonga Music Festival which is an annual event seeks to restore the rich culture of the Tonga people as hundreds of traditional musicians from across Southern Province and thousands of spectators from across the country and abroad gathered for the event that at Chikuni in Monze.
This is because music provides a link with the past. It both preserves culture and helps to establish and maintain identity based on historical accounts and records. Through the performance of music, memory of heritage and culture are celebrated in ways that relate vitally to the present. The Radio Chikuni concert examined music as a continuum-reconstructed and modified but, connective between the past and the present.
Hosted by Chikuni Radio, this year’s 9th All-Tonga Musical Festival attracted 105 bands, an increase of 9 compared to last years 96 bands that also saw an increase in the number of categories.
The increase in the number of categories to 12 could be attributed to the need to cater for the dynamism in culture and the evolution of music of the Tonga people.
Last Saturday, Chikuni was a hive of activity as various people from across the country gathered to sample the rich Tonga traditional music as people from all walks of life gathered for the two-day ceremony that seeks to promote the culture of the Tonga people.
The All-Tonga Music Festival was not just a mere gathering of local musicians, but a show that promoted the Tonga culture through music. The annual festival has also lowered some vices among the community members in Chikuni and advocated for social change, eliminated some unjust activities and brought harmony among the various people not only of Chikuni but the rest of the country and Africa in general.
The concert was able to provide a rare opportunity to pass on the Tonga heritage verbally and visually to thousands of people who attended the annual event. This was evidenced by the attention the musicians received each time they were called to perform.
People that attended the festival before had a chance to see the traditional instruments as well as traditional styles of music as they were enlightened on which occasion such music was performed and the significance of it.
For instance, the Kuyabila is a rich poetry done rhythmically with heavy drumbeats as the singer creates own words and recites them at an elevated level in terms of pitch. There is no definite melody to it and it is sung at funerals.
Junior Manyepa who is 15 years old was on hand to give the people in the audience the feel of the Kuyabila. When Manyepa performed, instead of bringing smiles to the people, he created an expected gloomy mood successfully because that is how Tonga poetry is done, painting the shades of life in a metrical recitation. The people liked the performance maybe because they were taken back to the real cultural life.
Another hero of the day was Richard Chiimbwe who received a loud applause from the audience when he performed the Kuyabila in a social commentary much to the amusement of the people because he talked about real issues affecting the local people.
The music that was played at the festival was also an important component of rituals, celebrations, work, play and politics. It also helped create and reinforce boundaries of communities and identity of the Tonga people as it served as a means for social expression that gave rise to emotions, to memories and to pleasures. The concert explored the power of music in the lives of people.
Though the festival was a musical one, it also had room for the fashion category where the young ones were allowed to display Tonga attires at the event.
The rich Tonga attire was put up on display by young girls from the Mukanzubo Cultural Group who wore traditional dresses depicting the life of the Tonga people.
Organisers of this year’s show have described it as a success saying it is better compared to last year’s.
“We have been overwhelmed by the response we have received from the band because last year we only managed to have 96 bands. To us it is very good and encouraging to see more than 100 bands perform before the magnitude of this people,” said Mary Kamoto the spokesperson for the organising committee.
Kamoto also said the winners were given seeds to encourage them participate even in future events because they wanted to keep the community free from vices such as illicit sex.
“And for your own information we had more young people performing compared to last year where we had the majority of the old people performing,” said Kamoto.
For one to take part in the festival it is very simple because one has to compose an original story and their songs must be original, never published or recorded before.
The greatest tragedy for Tonga culture is the fact that there is no proper custodian for it where the young ones could look up to. This is because every culture in the world has a musical tradition, and nature and environment is an intrinsic part of it.
While music exists in every human society, its meaning and place is culturally determined and the function of music also differs from culture to culture. Difference in techniques, instruments, languages and form have yielded a wealth of musical styles, and something is to be done to safeguard against the erosion by foreign culture or by just simple loss of memory.
Festivals like the Tonga one should be encouraged by all people especially Africans.
Special thanks could definitely go to Liverpool Young Stars, the Katebe Band, Tusole Band and the Buche Buche Band who have kept the show going by frequently taking part in the event thereby by motivating other bands to take part in the festival as well.
The most unique thing about the Tonga Music Festival is the fact that all musicians confine themselves to playing music using tradition instruments, making the beat a rare one and easy to fall in love with.
The Emerging Cultural Artists Support Programme a non-governmental organisation which is promoting cultural music and dance for the empowerment of rural youth was also part of the festival because they are in support of the empowerment of rural youth and as an instrument in the fight against HIV/AIDS and Malaria
Melody Couvaras, who is the executive director of the organisation said her organisation was happy to be associated with the festival.
The promotion and support of upcoming Tonga artists and other cultural activities, which may develop Tonga music and culture needs concerted efforts by all those who care for not only Tonga people but also the holistic development of Zambia and its many ethnic groups.
Labels: ALL-TONGA MUSIC FESTIVAL, MUSIC, SOUTHERN PROVINCE
Read more...
Chamisa, please take a breather!
Philip Murombedzi
Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:03:00 +0000
I WONDER whether I am the only one concerned about the utterances of Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T mouthpiece who has become a constant mourner and whiner and who has become almost predictable in manner of speech and use of memorised phrases and words.
Chamisa reminds me of High School days when we had to memorise Shakespeare to impress our teachers and fellow pupils or University Days when we used “big words” we had just learned. His language has become increasingly monotonous and nauseating. He is argumentative and lacks depth and often refers to the bad spirits of those his superiors signed a deal with. “Zanu PF is trying to swallows us as they did PF Zapu!” What is that Chamisa? The PF was born way before 1987. What history books are you reading? Have you been weaned yet?
He loves the media and his soundbites are characteristically childish and monotonous. He has almost become a joke in the Diaspora by his constant whining and childish responses to otherwise very serious questions requiring depth in response. When does this spokesman have time to reflect on issues or consult or simply take a breather? He refers to the March 29 elections as having been won by the MDC, yet criticizes Zanu PF for not respecting the rule of law. Take a pick, Nelson! Law or no law!
He exudes political youthfulness that misguides his judgment and his responses to serious questions are often knee-jerks that expose his inability to analyse issues in depth and find solutions to problems presented. He blames Zanu PF for spitting venom at the MDC, yet allows Lovemore Moyo to spit the same venom. Yes Moyo, who is now expected to be the impartial one after his plucking from MP to Speaker under very cloudy circumstances – which his ‘surname-sake’ Jonathan is challenging now, and rightly so!
Chamisa should realise that the process of change is like the growth of a baby from conception – it is a process that has to take its natural trajectory. It cannot be forced and no amount of verbiage will replace the natural progression of things. In politics you have to exercise caution and allow events to take their natural progression. The MDC is getting the PM, Deputy PM positions out of political expediency, not legalities of the electoral process and Nelson having received, and note received, a book prize from the UZ should be in a position to know this. Or should he?
He has said a lot of misguided statements that cannot be repeated here for their divisiveness – statements proving the MDC spokesman’s often hormonal response to issues of legal significance only serve to undermine the significance of those statements. For instance, he says the Zanu PF party is divided, yet in the same breath fails to explain the postponement of the Executive Committee meeting of the MDC that was supposed to chart the way forward after their imagined impasse! He fails to acknowledge the inconsistencies from the MDC camp spokesmen and leadership.
How can there be an impasse after you have appended a signature to more than one document? What did your principals think they were signing Chamisa? What is still there to be facilitated? Why did you append your signature before your current fresh demands? Isn’t this the political immaturity we are talking about?
It is interesting that Chamisa was sidelined in the aftermath of the harmonised elections of March 29 and MDC-T Secretary General, Tendai Biti took centre-stage and become the spokesman declaring myopically that, “Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the new President of the Republic of Zimbabwe”.
We also saw another spokesman emerge by the name of George Sibotshiwe. He was dubbed “Tsvangirai’s Spokesman” but seemed to duplicate the work that Chamisa was doing. Now that the crucial period has passed (the election period) Chamisa again takes centre-stage with his usual knee-jerk statements.
I just hope that these so-called spokesmen could learn how to express themselves without the usual anti-Mugabe or anti-Zanu PF ranting. The National Question is bigger than Mugabe, than Zanu PF, FP Zapu or MDC and MDC has never identified itself with the “national”. If Zanu PF is guilty of such, then the MDC should not imitate that which it purports to criticize. The MDC should not sign a Memorandum of Understanding with that which it despises. It defies logic, any logic.
Some of us hope Nelson, like his European historical namesake Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, (famous for his Napoleonic conquests) will raise the Zimbabwean flag high. His namesake was a British flag officer, so he is becoming one also?
Well unlike our Nelson, the British Nelson was noted for his ability to inspire and bring out the best in his men, to the point that it gained a name: "The Nelson Touch". His actions during these wars and his heroic image as a one-armed, one-eyed patriot, ensured that before and after his death he was revered. I’m not sure if I can say the same about this one!
philipmurombedzi@yahoo.com
Labels: JONATHAN MOYO, LOVEMORE MOYO, MDC, NELSON CHAMISA
Read more...
US approves $700 billion financial bailout
Reuters
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:09:00 +0000
THE House of Representatives approved a $700 billion bailout package for U.S. banks, under pressure from all sides as the effort to head off a spreading financial crisis hung in the balance.
The House approved the financial rescue plan by a vote of 263-171, sending the measure to President George W. Bush and concluding two weeks of legislative haggling in Congress that had roiled and captivated global markets.
Wells Fargo & Co stepped in to buy Wachovia Corp, a bank badly hobbled by the credit crisis, providing a rare bit of positive news for the financial sector and sending markets higher.
In new signs of spreading crisis, California said it was running out of money, France said the world stood on the "edge of the abyss" and European leaders were divided over their own response to the global crisis.
The House had shocked world markets on Monday by rejecting a previous draft. With elections on November 4, lawmakers from both parties were wary of voter backlash in asking taxpayers to pay for Wall Street's mistakes.
On Friday, speaker after speaker from both parties said rejecting the bailout could have devastating consequences for an already slowing U.S. economy, arguing the bill was as important for small businesses, homeowners, students and pensioners as it was for the financial sector.
"While the focus has been on the Dow Jones and Wall Street, we are addressing the real pain felt by Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
Said House Republican leader John Boehner: "We have to act, and if we do not this crisis is likely to worsen and put us into an economic slump like many of us have never seen."
The bill would allow the Treasury to buy toxic debt from U.S. banks, which many economists said is needed to head off the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
U.S. stocks rose on hopes for the bailout plan and the deal to buy Wachovia.
Wells Fargo, one of the strongest U.S. banks, said it didn't need the government help that Citigroup Inc required in an earlier effort to rescue Wachovia.
The dollar continued to rally against the euro and European stocks rose about 3 percent.
Earlier on Friday, the United States reported its biggest monthly job loss in 5 1/2 years, more evidence of an approaching recession. Data showed the U.S. services sector holding up.
"The data has been horrible all week long. It absolutely does put pressure on them to get this rescue act passed," said Fred Dickson, market strategist at D.A. Davidson and Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon. "It's a bill with risks, but it's a plan and the market needs a plan."
In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned the U.S. Treasury the state may need short-term federal loans because it can't raise money in frozen credit markets.
A collapse in the U.S. housing market and resulting bad mortgages have shattered confidence in the financial sector, with banks across the United States and Europe needing support from governments or outside investors this week.
Interbank lending and credit to businesses and private individuals has all but seized up. Central banks have injected billions of dollars to maintain some flow of funds.
'ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS'
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, whose country is hosting an emergency summit with Italian, British and German leaders on Saturday, said only collective action could solve the financial crisis. He said he would not rule out any solution to stop any bank failing.
"The world is on the edge of the abyss because of an irresponsible system," Fillon said, alluding to widespread anger over past lax regulation of financial markets and excessive lending.
Fillon said President Nicolas Sarkozy would propose at the emergency meeting measures to unfreeze credit and coordinate economic and monetary strategies.
In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown shook up his cabinet and authorities took three separate steps to try to shore up the financial system.
Bad news mounted in the European financial sector.
In Switzerland, UBS AG, hardest hit among European banks by its exposure to subprime-related holdings, said it would cut 2,000 investment banking jobs -- on top of the 4,100 positions cut in the past year.
Worries grew that even if Washington agrees on the package, it will not be enough to resolve deeper-rooted weakness in the global economy.
Divisions have emerged within Europe over the past week, with Ireland offering guarantees on bank deposits, prompting a flight of capital from British lenders to Irish banks, and Greece promising to safeguard savers' cash.
EU partners said Ireland's move could break competition rules and threatened the unity necessary to ensure an ordered approach to turmoil ahead.
(Additional reporting by Reuters reporters in Paris, Washington, Singapore, Tokyo and Zurich; Editing by Tom Hals)
Reuters
Labels: FINANCIAL CRISIS
Read more...
Per capita income has trebled, says Mutati
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe and Katwishi Bwalya
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
Commerce minister Felix Mutati has announced that the country’s per capita income has in the last five years increased by three times, making it one of the fastest growths in the region.
And Sandesara Group of India Chairperson Nitin Sandesara said his group would create a platform for further expansion of their investment in Zambia.
Mutati was speaking on Wednesday during the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Sandesara Group of India and Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) involving over US$100 million expected to be invested in mining-related activities by the India-based company.
He said there was need for the country to further attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) as a way of consolidating gains made in increasing the country’s per capita income in the last few years.
“In 2002, our per capita income was more than US $435 and as at the end of last year, it trebled to over US $1400. That perhaps is the highest increase of per capita income in the sub region,” Mutati said. “That means the Vision 2030 is within reach and we have to consolidate our investments so that we exceed that vision.”
And Mutati said although Sandesara’s investment would primarily be in Greenfield mining activities, the government would encourage the company to venture into partnerships with individuals and firms that already possessed mining assets to expedite the investments processes.
And Sandesara said his group has a portfolio of mining various minerals in the world and net asset value of US $5 billion.
“We also intend to invest in gas, oil and in the pharmaceutical industry,” said Sandesara.
Labels: FELIX MUTATI
Read more...
State interference versus media independence
By Prof Fackson Banda
Wednesday September 24, 2008 [04:00]
A particularly convincing reason many media activists advocate for self-regulation is because of the incessant State interference in media services. I have laboured this point in many of my previous column articles. But I must pinpoint the issue again because of the State’s recent interference in the programming of Q-FM, a privately-owned radio station.
Last week I challenged the State-owned media, given their public mandate, to provide a deep analysis of the presidential electoral campaigns, including critically profiling the candidates. I pointed out the advantages that I thought such media had over their private counterparts.
Now, in passing, I must make the point that public media may be more susceptible to State regulation than private media. The argument often advanced for this is that the State has an obligation to protect the ‘public interest’. I do not want to stretch this point because it can be so easily misunderstood. Suffice to say that the State’s intervention in public media must be justified in a way that leaves no doubt as to what constitutes what is in the ‘public interest’. Another issue worth mentioning is that ‘public interest’ is more often confused with ‘partisan interest’. That is why the regulatory rule of thumbs is to keep direct and indirect State regulation at bay.
To get back to my subject: I am concerned about the apparent interference by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services (MIBS) in the programming of Q-FM. I was horrified to read that the permanent secretary, Mr Emmanuel Nyirenda, had urged the station to screen calls made during a live phone-in presidential-electoral programme. At this juncture, I must remind my readers that my previous column articles on the subject of media regulation have, based on a review of wide-ranging global research, demonstrated that democratic regulatory regimes do not intrude into the content produced by media institutions. Regulatory regimes provide a general framework or structure for self-regulation.
The ‘directive’ by MIBS amounts to blatant intrusion into the arena of media production. To put it bluntly: it borders on inciting media propaganda. To oversimplify the syllogism: filter all phone calls that are inimical to the ideology of the ruling party. I take it that most such calls have tended to attack the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Rupiah Banda. If this is the case, we cannot be persuaded by any argument that such interference is in the public interest. It is more likely in the partisan interest of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD); it is meant to dissimulate alternative, critical political viewpoints.
Now, if we examine the assumptive basis of such State interference in the operations of media institutions, we will notice that it horribly disfigures democratic practice. First of all, it infantilises media operations in the country. Let’s put it bluntly: all private media operations are infant-like or childlike, requiring the strong directive hand of the State. In a word: the media do not know what is good for society. It is the State functionaries that must determine such public good and direct all media efforts towards its realisation. Thus simplified, State intervention in media services becomes laughable, except it is no laughing matter, this one.
The basic problem with such an approach to State-society relations is that it disregards the political idiosyncrasies of most of the State functionaries. Of a necessity, their worldview is dominated by the ideology of the ruling party.
The influence of their political affiliations must be checked through a system of checks and balances. It is for this reason that media are seen as part of that system of countervailing influences. To subject media to State hegemony is to effectively reduce them to propaganda instruments.
The idea of media self-regulation is, in the final analysis, a rejection of the infantilisation of media. It is an affirmation of the professional ‘adulthood’ of media professionals to make up their own minds about their work, including deciding issues of content generation. Like all adults, media professionals may falter in their work, but this does not necessarily mean that the State must take them over.
Second of all, State interference of the type exhibited by MIBS implies that citizens are themselves infantile or childish. It implies that they need the strong hand of the State to protect them from their own infancy and childishness. In other words, citizens do not know what they want. When citizens raise their voices in criticism of their political elites, they are being ‘immature’. They do not know what is good for them. So, under this Statist logic, we must find a way of filtering out the people’s infantile, childish, immature mumblings.
In a word: citizens must be controlled. That is the logic of such State interference. Now, I must not be misunderstood. I know that some people have outlandish political viewpoints and there might be a temptation to curtail such viewpoints. But no; the solution is not to gag those viewpoints. They need to see the light of day and be subjected to alternative perspectives. This is the measure of an open society, one in which there is a genuine plurality of views on a range of political, economic, social and other issues. We must not fear such plurality; it can only serve to make us stronger.
Zambian political elites have a choice to make. Do they want to hear about their unpopularity through their intelligence system? Now, we do know that the intelligence network is so embedded into the political structure that its intelligence could be politically coloured. This does not mean that we do not need our intelligence system; we do.
Or do the political elites want to make it easier on themselves by allowing the media greater freedom to reflect the full range of political contestation in the country? It makes democratic and moral sense to allow free rein to different political viewpoints. In fact, it might well work in favour of the politicians, both now and in the future.
But lastly, State interference of the sort shown by MIBS betrays a lack of understanding of media effects, political power and citizenship. The contemporary pluralistic media culture does not easily lend itself to State manipulation. Although large segments of the Zambian population are not within media reach, they can still interact in ways that can so easily cut across any partisan interest. People are complicated, no matter how ‘uneducated’. Their experience is enough to make them read between the political lines of media messages.
In urban areas, people are exposed to different other media platforms, including online information resources. Although such platforms may not reach the majority of our people, they still represent an alternative form of information. It is impossible to ‘control’ public opinion in the ways erroneously assumed by our State functionaries. Here is some free advice: State functionaries can only win by actively promoting policies that enhance access to information. They can send a strong political message by being seen as brokers of good media policies and laws, not by urging private radio stations to censor phone-calls. Here, the radio stations can invoke, of their own volition, the normal rules of debate and decency.
What is the conclusion of the matter, then? It is this: State interference in media operations is poor politics, especially in this new-mediated age. Keeping a distance from media operations, while creating a more enabling environment for media freedom to flourish, is posh politics. Zambians must make a choice. For me, the choice is easy: Less State interference in media operations, and more State support for media freedom.
Is the State ‘adult’ enough to heed this advice?
Labels: FREEDOM OF SPEECH, MEDIA
Read more...
Kalabo residents flock to see HH
By Nyambe Muyumbana and Lambwe Kachali
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
TEACHERS at Nalioma High School in Kalabo were on Wednesday at pains to control their pupils who jumped out of their classrooms to catch a glimpse of UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema. And Hichilema said Vice-President Rupiah Banda's political hooliganism has the potential of turning Zambia into a sinking Titanic.
Efforts by the teachers at Nalioma High School to restrain the pupils proved futile as they rushed to the roadside to see Hichilema's convoy which was coming from the airstrip in Kalabo.
The pupils stood by the roadside, chanting: "we want change, we want change."
Kalabo town almost came to a standstill as marketeers, some government workers and ordinary villagers rushed to the roadside to see Hichilema.
However, before Hichilema went to address the rally, MMD cadres in the area blocked the road leading to the market grounds where the event was expected to be held.
The cadres also pulled down all the UPND posters and threatened to beat up people who would attend the rally.
When Hichilema's convoy reached the point where the cadres had created a barricade, he instructed the driver to stop and he got out of the car.
Hichilema approached the irate cadres but they continued singing songs against him. However, UPND provincial chairman Best Makumba advised Hichilema to get back in his vehicle and the convoy proceeded to the venue of the rally.
At the rally, Hichilema said the MMD cadres blocked the road out of ignorance because they did not know that he had the capacity to take them and their children to school once voted into office.
"This type of politics the MMD is conducting is very unacceptable and petty. It shows that they are scared since they already know that they are going to lose," he said.
Hichilema accused the MMD government of stealing the UPND manifesto on cattle restocking which they did not understand and that they ended up restocking without eradicating animal diseases.
Hichilema said he was ready to redeem Western Province to become economically viable.
After the rally, Hichilema walked through the market amidst songs of praise, to Nyoka Guesthouse where he spent a night.
On Tuesday, UPND and MMD cadres clashed in Mongu town when the latter tried to block people who wanted to attend the UPND rally at Blue Gums ground.
The visibly annoyed MMD cadres who were clad in their party regalia were in the morning seen roaming around town in their campaign vehicles warning people against attending the UPND rally.
But people seemed not to have paid much attention, as some of them replied that they wanted change.
As the afternoon approached, MMD vehicles started ferrying some of their cadres, putting them in strategic points to block people from attending the rally.
This action angered UPND supporters who wanted to confront the MMD cadres.
Police had a tough time maintaining order.
When MMD cadres started attacking UPND cadres, Hichilema advised his supporters not to retaliate because doing so would not solve anything.
Hichilema said it was the duty of the police to restore order because the UPND had obtained a permit to hold a rally in the province.
After seeing that UPND cadres would not retaliate, MMD cadres started to disappear gradually.
During the mammoth rally, Hichilema said he would revive the cashew nut industry as well as establish a mango factory for the production of mango juice, in an effort to boost employment and consequently bring an end to poverty.
Hichilema said the MMD government had neglected Western Province as evidenced by the poor road network, lack of healthcare facilities and poor state of schools.
"You have seen the hooliganism exhibited by Rupiah Banda's cadres. These cadres are working under Rupiah's instructions and it is clear that once you vote such people in high offices, they will turn Zambia into a sinking Titanic.
The man has the potential to put the country on fire and we can't run a nation like that. Rupiah's political hooliganism should not be tolerated in this modern Zambia. We want to conduct clean campaigns based on real issues because you people here want change," Hichilema said. "I can assure you that once I come into office this month, fish and animal diseases will be priority number one.
Western Province is rich although MMD's poor policies have impoverished it. Don't worry, because time has come for economic liberation."
He urged people not to be cheated by politicians who claimed to be messiahs because of their fade-out political experience, saying Zambia's development was dependent on economic skills.
On the Mongu-Kalabo road, Hichilema said it did not require a specialist to advise that one could not build a road on water by using concrete as was the case with the MMD government.
Hichilema advised that Zambians could not continue to make a mistake of voting for leaders who did not put the aspirations and needs of the common people first.
"On October 30, do not vote for hungry people to State House. Hungry people when voted in power will first concentrate on feeding their tummies. And after feeding themselves fully that's when they will look after you. Just look at how big their tummies are. Look at me, I have come here flying not paid by government but I paid for myself. If you vote for me, I will first take care of you because I'm not hungry," Hichilema said.
UPND provincial publicity secretary Sishwashwa Mbinji said the party would lodge a complaint to ECZ against the MMD cadres that pulled down the party's posters.
Labels: CADRES, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA
Read more...
The scramble for Zambia
By Edem Djokotoe
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
On 1st September 2006, I published an article in this column headlined Life Without Advertising. I have been tempted to reprise it two years, two months and two days later not to commemorate the tide of angry corporate reaction it generated but to draw attention to the effects of the conspiracy between municipal authorities all around the country and big business on the urban and rural landscape.
I know councils have to find a way of generating money but I think they should draw the line somewhere about where and how companies advertise in public spaces municipal authorities hold and manage in trust for the citizenry. What is happening now is not too different from the historical episode we know as The Scramble for Africa where the big powers of Europe carved up our continent as though she were a Christmas turkey! Now big corporations are scrambling for our public spaces and defacing them in their attempts to woo our custom with advertising!
In reproducing this article, I am hoping to elicit some kind of action from the Ministry of Local Government and Housing or even some civic response from ordinary people, many of whom are accepting 30 pieces of silver from companies so that their walls can be defaced with garish advertising.
How can anyone possibly hope to keep Zambia clean if we are all going to sit around and watch big business and political office seekers appropriate every tree, every street light, every wall they can find and splash them with advertising and campaign messages?
And a lot of the posters are being stuck onto trees, street lights and walls with glue, making them virtually impossible to remove without damaging these surfaces. It is the sense of outrage I feel when I see these things that has motivated me to dig up Life Without Advertising from my archives and reproduce it below.
“Today’s article was inspired by Kalito’s Letter to the Editor published in The Post exactly one week ago. Entitled ‘Celtel, MTN Advertising’, the letter reminded me of a documentary I watched on the Discovery Channel recently about an epic battle between an African bull elephant and a rhino.
“I am not sure exactly how accurate the parallel is, but indeed when two corporate behemoths lock horns, it is not just the grass that suffers; even innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire. The evidence is there for all to see. A landscape which has become an advertising battlefield, running with blood of Celtel red and the fat of MTN yellow.
I’m yet to find a single person in Zambia today whose head isn’t spinning from this advertising blitz unleashed on a hapless population by these two telecommunications giants. Word on the street is that if you stand in one place for five minutes, either Celtel splashes you with red or MTN with yellow! The two competitors are scrambling for every available space with a passion not seen since The Scramble for Africa when the imperial forces of Europe carved up the continent like a turkey.
“Kalito is afraid The War of the Primary Colours will claim many more casualties in the city of Lusaka, like it has in my neighbourhood where, in a one-kilometre radius, you will find six instances of advertising defacement. ‘I tremble at the thought of seeing Evelyn Hone College’s newly erected wall fence along Church Road suddenly coated in red and yellow,’ he writes.
“Doesn’t all this make you want to close your eyes, block your ears and imagine what Life without Advertising would be? Of course, money from advertising revenue keeps the production costs of newspapers down, making them a lot more affordable to ordinary readers and giving the press a chance of financial sustainability beyond unit sales.
But think about the piece of mind you could enjoy in a world without billboards, without irritating jingles blaring on your radio every other minute, persuading you to buy something you don’t need, without having to be crudely interrupted by an advert as you watch your favourite programme on television after a hard day’s work.
“Don’t get me wrong. Advertising fulfills an important informational role in the world of commerce and industry and is more practical and more efficient than direct, person-to-person selling.
But there’s need to draw the line somewhere. I think it is important to draw a line between advertising that helps you make informed choices and advertising that is pure seduction, founded on outright lies. The kind calculated to lead you up a garden path, like trying to convince you that if you drank a certain brand of chibuku, you’d be showing “Respect”. To whom, I wonder?
“When I was a teenager, I was almost seduced by advertising to turn myself into a human chimney. Looking back, I am happy parental guidance prevailed at a time when Will Power did not stand much of a chance against Temptation. I was intrigued by Benson & Hedges cigarette ads, particularly the catchy slogan: Discover Gold. Those who have seen this brand will know that the packet is a rich gold and all the magazine and billboard adverts I saw advertising Benson & Hedges exploited this colour scheme brilliantly.
Of course, every single advert carried a public health message (in very small print, I might add) that the Surgeon-General had warned that cigarette smoking was dangerous to your health. But who really paid attention to a drab public warning competing for attention with slick, glossy photography and the message: Discover Gold?
“But even in print media advertising, there has been some regulation.
For instance, in 1998 the tobacco industry and the Attorneys-General of 46 states in the US agreed to ban the use of cartoon characters in tobacco advertising because it was felt the practice encouraged young people to start smoking. This was after there was a public outcry over the use of Joe Camel, a popular cartoon character, to sell Smooth, a brand of cigarette.
“Proponents of advertising argue that we shouldn’t take advertising messages too literally and that as rational beings, we ought to be able to suspend our disbelief just as we do when we watch a movie. We know the blood we see on the silver screen is not real and that the vampire on the silver screen sinking his fangs into his victim’s neck is just an ordinary actor earning a living. So why shouldn’t we cut advertising the same amount of slack?
“Why indeed!
Try telling a consumer who is under-paid, overworked and over-taxed and who has to struggle year after year to put food on the table, to clothe his family that you have made his life better because he happens to subscribe to a particular mobile phone service for which he has to pay! And he is not supposed to be pissed off with the service provider when he constantly has to battle with network problems! Not only that.
The glib sloganeering notwithstanding, his socio-economic circumstances doesn’t change at all. I admit, catchy slogans are an advertiser’s stock in trade, but trying to insult our intelligence with some of the things they are throwing at us is another question altogether.
“Actually, it was in trying to insult our intelligence that advertisers gave birth to soap operas in the late 1920s. They realised they could cash in on the gullibility of the public and make a tonne of money in the process. Soap opera grew out of American commercial radio in the late 1920s, when all the smaller stations were being hooked up to make two large, rival national networks, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Columbia Broadcasting System (now CBS). Once large sections of the American public were able to hear the same programmes, advertisers began searching for the perfect series that would be most effective in selling their products.
You see, this is because radio and TV stations in the US and Europe operate on the basis of ratings, that is, the size of listeners and viewers who tune in to a particular programme at a given time. This helps them put a value on air time. The more listeners or viewers a station has at a given time, the more expensive the air time is.
“And the battle between and among competing stations is really about audience share. So CBS and NBC started to target the daily 15-minute romantic dramas about people with whom listeners, mostly housewives, identified. The first dramas were sponsored by the big soap manufacturing companies (Lever Brothers, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter and Gamble).
That was how the name ‘soap opera’ was coined. ‘Soap’ for the products that were advertised; secondly, ‘opera’ because the dramas were highly exaggerated and melodramatic.
They were targeted at housewives because who else but a housewife would have a passionate love affair with a detergent? In short, soap opera is a derogatory term for a never-ending story with an implausible plot aimed at viewers and listeners who have nothing better to do with their time and whose intellect is low. Of course, you won’t find that definition in a dictionary, but that is what it is.
“And that is why, as a matter of principle, I don’t watch soap operas, or ‘soapies’ as they are popularly called. They were born out of a conspiracy by advertisers to seduce us and take money out of our pockets while our senses are befuddled.
“For the record: I have nothing against advertising or advertisers. But like I said, there is need to draw the line somewhere. Consumer protection associations must do what they can to protect us from unscrupulous advertising because let’s face it, advertising will not tell us the whole truth about the products they are unloading on us.
“I know that in the US, more and more people are taking an aggressive stance against corporations whose adverts have had far-reaching implications on their lives. Four years ago, Caesar Barber, 58 sued Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s for jeopardising his health with their greasy, salty menus by misleading him about their nutritional value in their adverts.
Barber, who weighed 122.4 kg at the time, filed the suit on behalf of a number of other obese New Yorkers who eat fast food consistently, saying the corporations did not disclose the ingredients of their food and the risks that came with eating too much of it. His lawyer, Samuel Hirsch, said the multi-billion fast food industry has an obligation to warn consumers of the dangers of eating their menus. ‘It’s a question of informing consumers the same way cigarette manufacturers warn smokers by law that smoking is dangerous to their health,’ he said in an interview.
“Such public protection is a public health prerogative.
I remember how in 2003, the Ministry of Health in Zambia banned the importation of Jiggies, a popular children’s snack on grounds that the product contained tartrazine, a widely used food colouring made from coal tar used in cakes, biscuits, soft drinks.
Tatrazine is also fed to chickens to give their yolks an incredibly yellow look. Anyway, to redeem its image and its market share following the Ministry of Health ban and the report that appeared on ZNBC, Carnival Foods, the company that makes Jiggies, launched a public relations campaign. It involved sending Luckson Nthani, the ZNBC reporter who did the report to their factory in South Africa.
“Nthani told me in an interview: ‘Carnival Foods complained that their market in Zambia had been ruined by my report on ZNBC TV. They showed us around the factory and tried to underplay the fact that Jiggies does indeed contain tartrazine,’ he said.
“Today, Jiggies is back on the shelves, albeit with different packaging. Gone is the reference to tartrazine on the packaging. In its place is a reference to ‘food colouring’ but no-one knows which kind. What is the Ministry of Health doing about it in the interest of public health? Search me. I asked the ministry this question among others I sent in a press query in January 2004. I am still waiting for an answer.
“While things like this may seem inconsequential in Zambia and other parts of Africa, within the European Union (EU), nutritional labelling is optional for food production corporations unless any nutritional claims are made in advertising or on the package, in which case it is compulsory. The information should spell out how many kilojoules, calories and how much protein, sugar, carbohydrates and fat, cholesterol, sodium and sugar alcohols (polyols) are contained in the food.
“It may seem like a bit of a bother, but such information helps consumers make informed choices—in the interest of their own health. It’s fine, for instance, for a company to advertise the exciting range of flavours of maheu it has just launched. But what we want to know is: what does it contain and how much? I need to know that the product I am about to drink will energise me, not make me sick because I may be allergic to some ingredient they haven’t had the presence of mind to tell me about.”
Postscript: Since I wrote this article, Celtel has morphed into Zain. As one would expect, with the change has come a change in corporate identity. Thankfully, we don’t have to be assaulted with Celtel Red everywhere we go, no matter how remote. But that is not to say Zain Black (or is it green?)is a better substitute. Frankly, this is not about colour but about a wanton disrespect of civic values and public spaces. Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow, some consortium could take over MTN and decide to replace the chicken yellow of the mobile phone company with psychedelic purple? And none of us would be the better for it, I can tell you that. Except, of course, those who profit from defacing our environment. Enjoy your weekend!
edjokotoe@yahoo.com
“But question is: how golden are a smoker’s lungs? What about the fact that cigarette smoking has been proved to cause lung cancer among smokers and foetal injury and premature birth for pregnant women?
It is because of this that today, cigarette advertisements can no longer be aired on television in Great Britain and the United States. Public concern about the promotion of addictive substances in a medium to which there is a wide access, particularly by children has led to this regulation. However, newspapers and magazines are still free to carry such advertisements, as long as these ads are accompanied by a public health warning talking about the dangers of smoking.
Labels: ADVERTISING
Read more...
Kalabo residents flock to see HH
By Nyambe Muyumbana and Lambwe Kachali
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
TEACHERS at Nalioma High School in Kalabo were on Wednesday at pains to control their pupils who jumped out of their classrooms to catch a glimpse of UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema. And Hichilema said Vice-President Rupiah Banda's political hooliganism has the potential of turning Zambia into a sinking Titanic.
Efforts by the teachers at Nalioma High School to restrain the pupils proved futile as they rushed to the roadside to see Hichilema's convoy which was coming from the airstrip in Kalabo.
The pupils stood by the roadside, chanting: "we want change, we want change."
Kalabo town almost came to a standstill as marketeers, some government workers and ordinary villagers rushed to the roadside to see Hichilema.
However, before Hichilema went to address the rally, MMD cadres in the area blocked the road leading to the market grounds where the event was expected to be held.
The cadres also pulled down all the UPND posters and threatened to beat up people who would attend the rally.
When Hichilema's convoy reached the point where the cadres had created a barricade, he instructed the driver to stop and he got out of the car.
Hichilema approached the irate cadres but they continued singing songs against him. However, UPND provincial chairman Best Makumba advised Hichilema to get back in his vehicle and the convoy proceeded to the venue of the rally.
At the rally, Hichilema said the MMD cadres blocked the road out of ignorance because they did not know that he had the capacity to take them and their children to school once voted into office.
"This type of politics the MMD is conducting is very unacceptable and petty. It shows that they are scared since they already know that they are going to lose," he said.
Hichilema accused the MMD government of stealing the UPND manifesto on cattle restocking which they did not understand and that they ended up restocking without eradicating animal diseases.
Hichilema said he was ready to redeem Western Province to become economically viable.
After the rally, Hichilema walked through the market amidst songs of praise, to Nyoka Guesthouse where he spent a night.
On Tuesday, UPND and MMD cadres clashed in Mongu town when the latter tried to block people who wanted to attend the UPND rally at Blue Gums ground.
The visibly annoyed MMD cadres who were clad in their party regalia were in the morning seen roaming around town in their campaign vehicles warning people against attending the UPND rally.
But people seemed not to have paid much attention, as some of them replied that they wanted change.
As the afternoon approached, MMD vehicles started ferrying some of their cadres, putting them in strategic points to block people from attending the rally.
This action angered UPND supporters who wanted to confront the MMD cadres.
Police had a tough time maintaining order.
When MMD cadres started attacking UPND cadres, Hichilema advised his supporters not to retaliate because doing so would not solve anything.
Hichilema said it was the duty of the police to restore order because the UPND had obtained a permit to hold a rally in the province.
After seeing that UPND cadres would not retaliate, MMD cadres started to disappear gradually.
During the mammoth rally, Hichilema said he would revive the cashew nut industry as well as establish a mango factory for the production of mango juice, in an effort to boost employment and consequently bring an end to poverty.
Hichilema said the MMD government had neglected Western Province as evidenced by the poor road network, lack of healthcare facilities and poor state of schools.
"You have seen the hooliganism exhibited by Rupiah Banda's cadres. These cadres are working under Rupiah's instructions and it is clear that once you vote such people in high offices, they will turn Zambia into a sinking Titanic.
The man has the potential to put the country on fire and we can't run a nation like that. Rupiah's political hooliganism should not be tolerated in this modern Zambia. We want to conduct clean campaigns based on real issues because you people here want change," Hichilema said. "I can assure you that once I come into office this month, fish and animal diseases will be priority number one.
Western Province is rich although MMD's poor policies have impoverished it. Don't worry, because time has come for economic liberation."
He urged people not to be cheated by politicians who claimed to be messiahs because of their fade-out political experience, saying Zambia's development was dependent on economic skills.
On the Mongu-Kalabo road, Hichilema said it did not require a specialist to advise that one could not build a road on water by using concrete as was the case with the MMD government.
Hichilema advised that Zambians could not continue to make a mistake of voting for leaders who did not put the aspirations and needs of the common people first.
"On October 30, do not vote for hungry people to State House. Hungry people when voted in power will first concentrate on feeding their tummies. And after feeding themselves fully that's when they will look after you. Just look at how big their tummies are. Look at me, I have come here flying not paid by government but I paid for myself. If you vote for me, I will first take care of you because I'm not hungry," Hichilema said.
UPND provincial publicity secretary Sishwashwa Mbinji said the party would lodge a complaint to ECZ against the MMD cadres that pulled down the party's posters.
Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA
Read more...
PF supporters threaten to beat up Chishimba
By Maluba Jere
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
EXPELLED Kasama Central member of parliament Saviour Chishimba was yesterday almost beaten up by Patriotic Front (PF) supporters for speaking ill of party president Michael Sata. And Chishimba yesterday endorsed Vice-President Rupiah Banda's candidature for the October 30 presidential election.
During a press briefing at Pamodzi Hotel, Chishimba who urged people not to vote for Sata in the forthcoming elections, was interrupted by PF supporters who asked him to stick to the agenda of the briefing as opposed to talking about their president.
An unidentified man walked to the front where Chishimba was addressing the gathering and asked him to announce his resignation from the party and not waste time by attacking Sata.
"Hey! Why don't you just announce your resignation other than talk about the president? Just resign from PF," the man said.
Chishimba then asked his supporters to call the police to help restore order.
"We don't want any of you here. Can you call the police? We have a lot of police officers here. The police is on standby," Chishimba said as he was dragged to the back of the room.
Some people rose from their seats to follow where Chishimba was being dragged to while others tried to leave the lounge but were told by those in charge to remain calm.
A plain clothes police officer then ordered the PF supporters to leave the scene and threatened to shoot anyone who would resist.
The cadres were then dragged and escorted to a vehicle which had posters of Sata on it, although they did not leave immediately.
Some more uniformed police officers arrived at the scene and warned against unruly behaviour.
A few minutes later, the cadres left and Chishimba continued with his address.
And Chishimba said his endorsement for Vice-President Banda was for the sake of peace and unity.
Labels: CADRES, PF, SAVIOUR CHISHIMBA
Read more...
Madness
By Editor
Friday October 03, 2008 [04:00]
An ancient Greek scholar Euripides once observed that “whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad”. It is really an exercise in self-destruction for Rupiah Banda’s campaign manager Mike Mulongoti to threaten to close The Post.
Why is Mulongoti threatening to close The Post? Is it that easy for Rupiah’s government to just wake up one day and close The Post, an organisation that has been part of our country’s democratic process for the last 17 years?
Yes it is true The Post has embarrassed Rupiah and his sponsors by exposing their lies, deceit, dishonesty. But is this a good reason for them to close the newspaper?
This only goes to show what these characters think of themselves. They think everything should evolve around them. And for now, they think Rupiah is Zambia. It seems to them the interests of Rupiah take precedence over the interests of other Zambians. To them, Rupiah’s interests constitute national interests. If his feelings are hurt, the nation is hurt. If his campaign is undermined, national interest is undermined. This is what they seem to be telling us.
It is easy for them to close The Post if they want to be lawless. There is no law that allows them to close The Post in the manner Mulongoti is threatening. Contrary to what Mulongoti is saying, there is no licence that is required for anyone to publish a newspaper or magazine in this country. Licences only apply to the electronic media because of the limited number of frequencies. This is how ignorant our Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services is about things under his ministry. He thinks he can stop The Post from publishing in the same way he can withdraw the licence of a community radio station he doesn’t like.
What is wrong with Mulongoti? What is the source of his arrogance and intolerance?
We do appreciate the fact that Mulongoti will lose a lot if Rupiah is not elected president on October 30 because he will be back to the streets without a job. Mulongoti suffered a lot until Levy Mwanawasa nominated him to Parliament and made him minister. It’s understandable why for him, Rupiah should win at all costs because if Rupiah is out, then there will be no job for Mulongoti. But should the interests of the whole nation be subordinated to the preservation of Mulongoti’s job?
Mulongoti’s desperation may just compound the problems of Rupiah’s already troubled campaign. Mulongoti wants to open a Pandora’s Box over taxes. Does he really want the issue of tax compliance to be part of the election agenda? Does he want us to discuss Rupiah’s tax issues? We have all that we need on Rupiah’s tax position and that of his businesses. If they want us to discuss this issue, let them give us a go-ahead. As for our taxes, we have nothing to hide and we can discuss them with Mulongoti and Rupiah openly at any time and public forum.
The advice we can give them on this issue is that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. It seems we are back to the Chiluba days when the Zambia Revenue Authority was used as a weapon against political opponents. And credit to Levy Mwanawasa, he never used the Zambia Revenue Authority for personal political ends.
It is not difficult to see why Chiluba is courting the Rupiah camp: they have similar traits – brown envelopes, abuse of state agencies and so on and so forth.
And with characters like these, life won’t be easy for their opponents. As for us, life has never been easy. And we have never deceived ourselves that things are going to be easy. We are prepared to meet difficulties. We have difficulties now, and we will have even greater ones in the future, even if we do things the right way – and we should do them the right way, even if it calls for our greatest efforts. We have to cope with the increasing hostile measures Rupiah and his sponsors are trying to take against us.
We know that we will have to pay heavily for not allowing ourselves to be their public relations agents. There are journalists that have sold out to the powerful, been hired by the powerful, or surrendered themselves to the powerful, but we serve notice on Rupiah and his sponsors – and they should know that we mean what we say – we will never hire ourselves out, sell out, or surrender to their threats, intimidation and harassment.
Others may be used to trembling before their threats, but not us. Never!
We resolved 17 years ago, and from the bottom of our hearts, to make whatever efforts are necessary to fulfill our sacred duties to our country.
Our ideas are very clear, our convictions are very deep, our decisions are very resolute. We are very patriotic, very much aware of our rights, very sure of our ideas and our cause. We have a lot of dignity and are very sure of ourselves.
Rupiah and his sponsors should know that whereas we were strong in the days of Chiluba, today we are one hundred times stronger and better prepared psychologically and other.
If Rupiah and his friends think they are going to settle the differences between them and us through blackmail, threats, intimidation, harassment, they are mistaken! If they think they are going to intimidate us, scare us, bring us to our knees by dint of threats and blackmail, they are mistaken! This is what we have always told them and this is what we want to say to them today!
They shouldn’t underestimate our ability, our dignity, our courage while their propaganda against us lasted as long as a lit candle lasts in a storm.
We are not trembling by the threat of closure, we are not scared by their threats. On the contrary, we turn those threats into a force.
What these characters can’t understand is the source of our courage, our dignity.
But this is not to say everything we have done has been perfect or right. We have not always acted wisely, we have not always made the best decisions. But we are certainly always able, with all the honesty in the world, to detect in time any error, any wrong decision, recognise it, rectify it, carry on; because even when you travel through the mountains with the help of a compass, from time to time there can be some drifting away from the right path – just as ships sailing on the ocean occasionally drift off course a little – but you always keep going ahead in the right direction.
These are not mere words. Our record is well known by all and it is there for all to see, all know very well what The Post has done in this country. And we did not do any of these things with mercenaries, we do them with the sons and daughters of the people.
What Rupiah and his friends cannot forgive is that we are here, what they cannot forgive us for is our independence, our dignity, our integrity, our bravery, our fighting spirit.
Let dignity and decorum, courage and manliness, and honesty take the floor. Let criticism of defects be a constant and be directed at all alike. We are referring to honest criticism, well-founded, healthy, constructive criticism at the right time and place and formulated in the right way.
Difficult situations differentiate those who have their feet firmly on the ground. We are absolutely convinced of that, as throughout our history, those who vacillate and are faint of heart will weaken, but we grow in the face of adversity.
The behaviour of Rupiah’s campaign manager, Mulongoti, reminds us that a great deal still remains to be done. Our first duty is to tell the truth. To deceive the people, to delude them with force illusions can only result in the worst consequences, we believe people should be warned not to be over-optimistic.
We have never had any illusions about the price they would make us pay for opening up an era of genuine independent journalism in our country.
Rupiah and his sponsors should know that to ban a publication is being destructive, or at least it is opposing the process of reality.
Closing The Post will be an attempt to silence criticism. And to silence criticism is to silence freedom.
We admit that freedom of speech and press freedom often provoke public and political controversy, but experience shows us again and again that when freedom is diseased, the only cure is more freedom. God forbid that any newspaper should be closed. The practice is as indefensible as defilement.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent and debate. And when truth is no longer free, freedom is no longer real. Surely, should the honest exposure of Rupiah’s dishonesty, corrupt and bribery behaviour be the reason for closing The Post?
Media which are not free to criticise those in government and the ruling party, or that are not representative of the broad spectrum of society, are inherently limited in their capacity to support and bolster democracy.
As we have stated before, few would argue that the media always carry out their functions responsibly. But the remedy for this is not to close newspapers or revoke broadcasting licences. The solution is not to devise rules or regulations that set some arbitrary definition of responsibility but to broaden the level of public discourse so that citizens can better sift through the chuff of misinformation and rhetoric to find the kernels of truth.
Mulongoti is clearly showing and telling us what type of government we should expect from his boss – Rupiah. We say this because Rupiah has never disassociated himself from the statements and threats made by his campaign manager. And moreover, Mulongoti is nothing but Rupiah’s agent – he speaks on behalf of and for Rupiah. This is really going to be a fascist and tyrannical regime.
Look at the way they have taken over ZNBC television! They have made it look like it is an MMD television station created exclusively for Rupiah’s campaign. This greediness, vanity and selfishness is frightening. It seems they believe government facilities and resources are theirs alone to enjoy! Look at the way they are travelling for their campaigns: two government and Zambia Airforce helicopters and a plane! Isn’t this excessive? Is this the way to use public resources for campaigns? Maybe we don’t know the meaning of incumbency!
But we don’t think Zambians will surrender to this type of nonsense. If they are going to form government with this attitude, they will have serious difficulties getting to 2011. We urge Rupiah and his sponsors to moderate themselves and mull over things and consider the feelings and rights of other citizens. This greediness, arrogance and intolerance will backfire!
Labels: MIKE MULONGOTI, THE POST
Read more...
