Brace yourselves for a more vicious Rupiah - Sata

Brace yourselves for a more vicious Rupiah - Sata
Written by George Chellah
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 4:05:57 PM

ZAMBIANS must brace themselves for a more vicious Rupiah Banda, Patriotic Front (PF) president Micheal Sata has said. And the Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA), Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia has observed that the arrest and subsequent charging of Post news editor Chansa Kabwela will set a bad precedence.

Commenting on the arrest of Kabwela, Sata said it was clear that President Banda was behind Kabwela's arrest and that the nation must brace itself for more viciousness from President Banda.

"Rupiah Banda will be more vicious as we go on. He will actually even be more vicious than the way Kenneth Kaunda was. Just look at how things are going on in the country at the moment, the arrest of Kabwela is one such case," Sata said.

"Rupiah is just harassing Kabwela over nothing. All that is pointing to the same viciousness I am talking about. Rupiah will be worse than Kaunda and Zambians must know that."

He said even the appointment of Lameck Mangani as home afffairs minister was stategic.

"Rupiah has made Mangani as home affairs minister because he knows the harassment, intimidation and viciousness he will embark on as we go on. He wants a person like Mangani to be in charge of that ministry so that he can easily abuse the security wings such as the police in the manner like the one we are currently witnessing," he said.

Sata said President Banda wanted to divert the nation's attention from serious issues.

"He wants to divert the attention of the nation from the problems he is failing to deal with. For instances, we have reliable inforrmation that the same police he is using have not yet been paid their salaries. We have information that Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde recently addressed the police at force headquarters were he told them that they shouldn't even assure themselves of getting their mealie meal allocations because he doesn't know when the next consignment will come," Sata explained.



"We also have inforrmation that they want those police officers that are currently accomodated in police camps to start servicing their utility bills such as water and electricity from their own pockets. They have diverted all the money to the Chitambo parliamentary by-election."



And the media bodies have expressed their displeasure with the arrest of Kabwela.



"The Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA), Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) And the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia would like to urge the government and Members of Parliament to amend the law on obscenity in order for the said law to define in clear terms what constitutes obscenity and matters that can corrupt morals," they stated.



"Currently Section 177 makes it an offence to be in possession of, or circulation of obscene material. However, this law does not define what constitutes obscene matter. It simply makes the offence punishable through imprisonment up to five years. However, the law is too broad and it leaves to the discretion of the person in authority to determine what constitutes obscene material.



"As media associations, whose membership is drawn from media practitioners, we wish to urge government and indeed our law makers to amend these laws that impinge on press freedom by clearly defining what constitutes obscenity. Currently under this law, journalists are operating in grey areas that are not clearly defined."



They stated that they wish to register their concerns that information that is communicated must be treated with the intention it was communicated.



"... because as media ethics demand, sometimes, public interests override private interest and that should be the light in which this matter should be viewed. Though the pictures were in bad taste, the message behind the pictures was meant to seek a reaction and consequent solution from the authorities towards a solution to the nurses and health worker's strike," they stated.



"We are concerned that the precedence set by this arrest and subsequent charging of Ms Chansa Kabwela will set a bad precedence of past eras where if a person reported to the Police that he/she had come across a dead body then he would be the first suspect the police would question as a sad development because this kind of approach to sensitive matters will hinder whistle blowers as the same standard would be applied to them."



They further noted that this trend would breed more corruption, which government was grappling with in the Ministry of Health and many other sectors.

"We appeal to the government and legislators to ensure that they do away with laws that have been in existence since colonial days or the 1930s. Its amazing that Zambia has been a democratic country for about 18 years but is still very happy to be guided by colonial laws that were meant to suppress indigenous Zambians," stated the media bodies.