ANTHONY BWALYA IS WORKING AGAINST THE PRESIDENT
1. It is shocking that Anthony Bwalya, the Spokesperson for President Hakainde Sammy Hichilema has continued on his path to deliberately put the reputation of his boss in public odium and disrepute by continuously spreading lies and falsehoods in the name of the President.
2. Today, Anthony Bwalya has opted to embarrass his boss by claiming that President Hichilema never condemned President Edgar Lungu‘s trips when he knows too well that President Hichilema and Anthony himself, when in opposition, roundly and strongly condemned the former President’s foreign trips. He knows too well that there are several tweets, Facebook posts, press statements, videos, including voice bites of President Hichilema condemning President Lungu on this score and to deny this is to actually a deliberate ploy by Anthony to put the name of President Hichilema in ridicule as social media has already started flashing previous screenshots and tweets of President Hichilema criticising President Lungu on foreign trips.
3. Clearly our brother needs orientation with regards to the functions, duties and responsibilities of a Presidential Spokesperson. A Presidential Spokesperson is literally the mouthpiece of the President; he communicates the President’s words, thoughts, policies and positions on national matters. So when Anthony speaks, it is the President himself speaking, therefore, Anthony must be careful not to be communicating lies, falsehoods and cheap propaganda as that reflects very badly on the President.
4. Brother Anthony must know that he cannot continue using propaganda as the standard operational procedure in executing his duties as the President’s mouthpiece. The office of the President is the highest office in the land and it must be carried with honour, truth and decorum; the office of the President cannot be reduced to a propaganda platform in the manner that Anthony is doing.
5. We all know that it is difficult to defend the numerous foreign trips that President Hakainde Sammy Hichilema has taken so far. In just 6 months the man has broken the records of all former Presidents and this is behind the backdrop of his incessant criticism and his promise to cut on foreign trips once elected. These trips are costly and a serous drain on the national coffers. To compound the wasteful expenditure, the President has failed to show any benefits that his many foreign trips have so far yielded for our people.
6. We sympathise with the position Anthony finds himself in, were his boss has renegaded on almost all his campaign promises making it impossible for him to defend the man. However, Anthony should not add insult to injury by resorting to cheap lies and propaganda; Zambians are not dull, they are not that forgetful either; they know what President Hakainde Sammy Hichilema promised and they have screenshots, press statements, videos and voice bites of everything that the President said during campaigns so no amount of spinning or propaganda can change these facts. The best Anthony and the President can do is to admit their failure and apologise to the people of Zambia for their many fake campaign promises.
Issued by
Antonio M. Mwanza
PF Media Director S