I SHARED LEAKED AUDIO WITH HH
…but him, Akafumba and Kasanda are quiet – Kalaba
By Peter Sukwa and Oliver Chisenga
DEMOCRATIC Party president Harry Kalaba says he has been greeted with silence over the audio he leaked exposing State House scheme of disturbing his party.
Kalaba disclosed that when he received the leaked audio around 01:00 hours, the first person he shared it was President Hakainde Hichilema and later chief government spokesperson and Minister of Information and Media Chushi Kasanda.
He said it was surprising that some government officials were describing the audio circulating on social media as fake and wondered how they came to that conclusion.
He said the only institution which could state whether the video was real or fake was the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA).
“When I got the information that State House and President Hakainde Hichilema are involved in destabilising the DP, I approached the President who denied having being involved in sponsoring anyone and encouraged me, that ‘my brother, just forge ahead’, and I thought he was encouraging me genuinely not until around 01:00 hours when I received the audio,” Kalaba revealed when he was featured on 5FM radio on Thursday.
“And I said ‘yes, this is my moment’. The first person I sent it to to is President Hichilema, but he has not answered. He is quiet up to now. Maybe he is very busy with foreign duties. The second person is the chief government spokesperson, who is Minister of Information and Media, Chushi Kasanda, my wife. Me I call her my wife. She is also quiet. The third person is my brother, Josephs Akafumba, all of them have remained quiet.”
Kalaba said his party now had reason and proof that President Hichilema had interest to destroy DP by meddling into its political affairs as revealed in the leaked video.
He said he was not bothered with the leaked audio because he believes in speaking the truth.
Kalaba said he wanted to become a priest, the reason he always wanted to say the truth in national matters.
“Even that audio you are taking about, did I kill a person or it’s the truth? I am not bothered because it’s the truth. Because I wanted to become a priest, so I always want to say the truth on national matters,” he said.
Kalaba advised the UPND government not to take national matters lightly as that was the reason why Zambians voted PF out of power.
He disclosed that the leaked audio of the two senior government officials was a State House scandal.
But chief government spokesperson Chushi Kasanda says President Hichilema has called for transparency over the recording.
She said whoever is in the audio conversation had no blessing from the President.
In an interview yesterday, Kasanda said there is no way that the President would give anybody
such a directive.
Kasanda, the Minister of Information and Media, distanced President Hichilema from the audio that went viral days ago.
“I want to distance the President and Vice-President [Mutale Nalumango] from that audio. The President has been very clear that he wants people to have their
freedom and he wants people to have their independence and wants to see democracy thrive,” she said.
“Therefore, there is no way that the President would give anybody any directives, not even any Cabinet minister would be given such a directive. So I distance the President and Vice-President from such allegations.”
Kasanda also said contrary to Ministry of Information and Media director Thabo Kawana’s statement that the audio was fake, the government is in a process to establish the origin of the
audio.
She said the government had asked the Zambia information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) to establish authenticity of the audio before she can further talk to the media.
“There was a statement given by Mr Kawana that the audio was fake, so what we are trying to establish is that is the audio fake or not. That is the
first step and I think we will be concluding with this this afternoon (yesterday) and we want to establish where it came from – any of the two phones or if it came from somewhere else,” said Kasanda.
“I was at ZICTA yesterday (Thursday) in the afternoon. I am going there this
morning at 09:00 (yesterday). So we are trying to establish all that and once we establish that then it will be safer to answer any story [question] from the media and I will be as candid as possible. Once this is established I will come out and tell the people. The President wants us to be transparent. He says be transparent and whatever you find, tell the people.” – The Mast