By Staff Reporter
The memories of PF atrocities are still fresh hence the importance of showing these things, says Information and Media permanent secretary Kennedy Kalunga.
Commenting on the reactions to the documentary aired on ZNBC on President Hakainde Hichilema’s 2017 arrest by former president Edgar Lungu’s administration, which has unsettled those in the PF as being one sided and going back to the late Chanda Chimba era of scandalising other citizens using the national broadcaster, Kalunga said people like Zambia’s former Ambassador to Ethiopia Emmanuel Mwamba were in government when the arrests and shooting of others were happening, yet they did not condemn the atrocities.
He said the debate should be about whether the atrocities actually happened rather than other considerations, saying people saw the arrest of Hichilema on both the public and private television.
“Why didn’t he condemn those atrocities when he was in government? He would have condemned that, he still supports those things. That’s what it implies, that’s what he’s interpreting. He was a government official we never heard him condemn those things. He’s seeing them now?” he asked during an interview with Daily Revelation.
But asked if he was trying to justify the wrong of ZNBC operating in the same usual ZNBC manner under the new government, with the wrong which happened in the past, Kalunga said: No we are not justifying a wrong. We are saying that now for one to be arrested the police ought to investigate. That’s what we have been preaching on. The new dawn government is saying that a person should first be investigated then arrested…hence you see people who are being arrested after a day or so they are out, or within hours they are arrested they are either on police bond or bail.”
But put to him that that was not the case as people have been detailed for days, some even weeks in police cells without being charged, Kalunga said: “It depends with how one was arrested. Look at it because you cannot say what was happening in PF is happening now. On that one I totally refuse.”
He said people were now not being teargassed, not even being shout at by the police.
“Of course memories are still afresh, history is there. Look, even whatever was aired was aired also then, unless you were not there. It was aired on national tv and on private private, the arrest of the Republican President, current one,” Kalunga said. “Did those things happen? That’s why there is history, people go back to history to show, these are the real things that happen in Zambia. Is Mwamba telling us that now the things that were happening we should be mute about them? PF left a lot of credit but they are not saying they should pay as a party but government continues, has to pay. Are they saying that now those things we cannot talk about them? It happened? That should be a learning curve that people should not be arresting people without investigating.”
Kalunga said there were lessons to learn from the documentary, so that people could refrain in the future.
“That’s the beauty about showing those things. Zambia was ruled by the British. We talk about those, how we used to buy things on the window, how they used to mistreat us and how Zambia fought for independence throwing stones…should we stop talking about history? Will our children learn. Why should we be learning foreign history when we forget about our own history? I don’t know which angle Mwamba thinks because history should be told. A story should be told of whatever happened in this land of Zambia. We learn about what Shaka was doing and the other people were doing. History should be told the truth should be told then from there we learn,” Kalunga said. “Mwamba was in government, why didn’t he condemn it when he was in government himself? Today that’s when his eyes have opened…he never condemned. I don’t know what has changed because government continues.”
But asked on what the government was doing to make ZNBC operate more independently as a public broadcaster, as some have asserted that it has continued operating in the same biased manner as during the PF reign, despite promises by the President that it would operate differently under his reign, Kalunga said he did not agree that the state broadcaster was operating in similar fashion as during the PF administration, saying that new government is allowing the media to regulate itself.
“Why didn’t he condemn it when those things where happening, when those people were being shot at? He never condemned, maybe he is supporting the criminality of people shooting people. That’s what we may perceive that. Maybe that’s what he is trying to say…Is it right to take somebody’s life unlawfully? Those are issues he should condemn. Is it right to arrest people without investigating?” asked Kalunga, saying the whites did not complain when Zambia talks about how bad they treated blacks during the fight for Independence. “He would have said ‘oh no! This is racial.
More news @ www.dailyrevelationzambia.com
