Maravi

Post reporter challenges Rupiah over his white beret

Post reporter challenges Rupiah over his white beret
By Joseph Mwenda
Wed 21 Apr. 2010, 14:00 CAT

Post reporter Mwala Kalaluka at his work station in the newsroom at The Post Newspaper head office in Lusaka

POST reporter Mwala Kalaluka has denounced claims by President Rupiah Banda that the reporter admired his outfit at this year’s Kuomboka ceremony hence a story published in the Post newspaper titled “Rupiah surprises people with white beret at Kuomboka”.

And Post managing editor Amos Malupenga has said it was trivial for the President to say that people who questioned his outfit during Kuomboka ceremony were jealousy of him.

President Banda yesterday told Kitwe residents that people who were questioning his attire at this year’s Kuomboka ceremony were just jealousy of him because he looked nice.

During a live phone-in programme on Lusaka’s Qfm radio this morning, Kalaluka said he was merely doing his job by reporting an anomaly in the President’s attire at a very special occasion.

“I am not only a journalist, I am also a Lozi by tribe and I know the tradition very well. So I wondered why the president was wearing a white beret when last year he wore a red beret, Kalaluka said.”

“People also started wondering and complaining about it and it was my responsibility as a journalist to report what I saw, and I did not admire the President’s outfit.”

He explained that the red beret that was introduced at Kuomboka during the reign of Mulambwa, who was the tenth Litunga, has a special significance to the Lozi tradition and that white equally had a different meaning.

“White berets are worn by those men who take care of graves for the past Lozi kings, they are for the grave caretakers, so people were surprised to see him in a white beret,” Kalaluka said.

On Saturday April 17, President Banda surprised people at Mongu Airstrip when he emerged from a Zambia Air Force (ZAF) plane clad in a traditional Lozi attire of a kilt and a waistcoat but with a white, instead of the normal red beret on his head.

And reacting to other callers’ comments on the same programme who suggested that the Post was being trivial by publicizing the presidents attire, Malupenga observed that the attire worn at the ceremony was symbolic to the occasion.

“The reporter picked on that angle because he noticed something unusual and he was not the only one who noticed, many other Lozis questioned that. But for us, the Barotse Royal Establishment has commented on that and if it is their position that there was nothing wrong with the President’ attire, then the story ends there.”

Malupenga said the story was not trivial but instead observed that it was President Banda who was being trivial by saying that those who questioned his attire were jealousy of him.

“Surely that was trivial of him, it was trivial coming from the President to say we were jealousy of him. It was just the critical eye of the reporter who noticed that there was a departure from what is usual because the President wore a red beret last year,” said Malupenga.

Labels: AMOS MALUPENGA, CEREMONIES, MWALA KALALUKA, RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 3:44 PM