NUMSA trying to cover up Post mess-PF

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 11:32:09 +0000

… as Zambia reacts to South African union

IT IS illogical for NUMSA to start fighting the Zambian Government simply because they are advancing an agenda to cover up the mess created by the defunct Post Newspaper yet turning a blind eye to social ills in their own country which they have failed to advocate against, PF deputy spokesperson Frank Bwalya has charged.

Commenting on NUMA’s refusal to engage the Zambian High Commission in that country to set the record straight over then Post Newspaper’s closure and its allegations that it felt the pain of poverty, unemployment and extreme inequalities affecting the majority of people of Zambia, Mr. Bwalya advised NUMSA to be logical and debate the issue with decency.

He wondered where NUMSA got the “hyena courage” to speak on issues surrounding other countries as though they were an extension of South Africa without regard to the sovereignty and independence of Zambia.

“We don’t think that NUMSA has exhausted issues affecting people in South Africa and we feel it is wrong for them to spread their tentacles to other countries in the name of speaking for the poor yet they have problems in their country which have remained unresolved. “NUMSA should wake up and realise that they are wandering away from their mandate in South Africa. What they have done is essentially abandoning the people they should be speaking for and concentrating on an agenda which is highly suspicious by refusing to meet Mr. (Emmanuel) Mwamba (Zambian High Commissioner to South Africa) so that they can have a clear picture of what led to the closure of the Post Newspaper,” Mr. Bwalya said.

Last week, Mr. Mwamba invited NUMSA to an engagement over the closure of the Post but in its response yesterday, NUMSA refused to avail itself, saying whatever Mr. Mwamba had written was politically motivated, rendering the proposed meeting baseless.

In a statement yesterday, NUMSA deputy general secretary Karl Cloete said the union understood the situation in Zambia better. “We are very familiar with the political situation in Zambia, especially just before, during and after the last national elections, in 2016. We feel and suffer terribly the pain of poverty, unemployment and extreme inequalities affecting the majority of the people of Zambia.