Wed, 01 Mar 2017 09:38:04 +0000
By ROGERS KALERO
THE problems which former Post Newspaper proprietor Fred M’membe is facing are self-inflicted and should not be blamed on either the Patriotic Front (PF) government or President Edgar Lungu, Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) Copperbelt coordinator Poster Jumbe has said.
Mr Jumbe said it was unfair for some traditional leaders from Southern Province to attack President Lungu over the problems Mr M’membe was going through because he created them for himself because of his failure to pay tax.
He was reacting to media reports on Monday where Chief Mukuni was quoted as warning President Lungu to stop hunting what he could kill because he will end up injuring himself.
Chief Mukuni of Livingstone and Kazungula said President Lungu’s mission to destroy Mr M’membe, the Post and the Mast newspaper would injure him in a bad way.
And in yesterday’s Mast, Chief Chikanta of Kalomo district told President Lungu to stay away from Mr M’membe and the Mast newspaper.
Chief Chikanta, who is also chairperson of the Southern Province Royal Foundation, appealed to Government agencies not to be dragged into hate campaign that President Lungu and his PF had mounted against Dr M’membe , his wife Mutinta and State counsel Nchima Nchito.
But, Mr Jumbe said it was unfair for some traditional leaders from Southern Province to attack President Lungu and PF over the problems Mr M’membe was going through because he created those problems for himself because of his failure to pay tax.
He said Dr M’membe had committed a serious offense of evading tax which would have seen him in prison if it were in other countries.
“In other countries, it is a serious offense to evade tax and people are jailed, but it is disappointing that some chiefs have chosen to attack President Lungu and the PF government for problems which Mr M’membe’s inflicted on himself when he decided to evade tax.
“Any away, it is not surprising that some chiefs in Southern Province can behave in such a manner. The reason is simple. It is because some of our chiefs have become political party cadres. Even during the last two elections, we saw some chiefs raise the symbol of some political parties,” Mr Jumbe said.
And Mr Jumbe has advised some sections of the media not to take a partisan stance and choose who to attack and who to spare but to be objective and neutral.
He said the problem with some media institutions was that they wanted to be the ones to decide who should be the republican President and whoever was elected President should dance to their tune.
“The problem with some media institutions in Zambia is that they want to control the government and if the government refuses to be controlled by them, then they wage a battle against the government and certain individuals.
“You can’t be attacking one person every day in the newspaper. Some media institutions want to be king makers, but it does not work that way every day. One day, people will see through and will stop supporting you. You can’t be an all -ime champion. No,” he said.
