EDUCATIONIST, LAURA MITI, ROASTS DAILY NATION EDITORIAL POLICY FOR ABETTING RUTHLESS PF REGIME
Civil society activist and educationist Laura Miti has taken issue with the Daily Nations’ editorial policy accusing Richard Sakala’s publication of practising dishonest journalism.
The Daily Nation spent the last 10 years supporting and facilitating the worst excesses of the PF. The publication was Antonio Mwanza and Tutwa Ngulube in newspaper form, uncaring about whether what they said was true or not and more disturbingly, unconcerned about the public good.
The paper has predictably toned down in the last few weeks, almost flipping its editorial policy. This, cartoon they publish is, however, most annoying.
The cartoon makes two erroneous and poisonous suggestions. The first is that the criminally violent cadres that have been removed from bus stops and markets are owed alternative jobs. The second, and even more insidious, suggestion is seen in that the Tshirt says “Youths” not “cadres” or “thugs. ” That deliberately and dishonesty
suggests that removing cadres from public spaces translates to preventing young people from making a living in markets and bus stops.
Now, here is how it is. For the last 10 years, cadres had taken over markets and bus stops and were illegally collecting fees belonging to the council. They were also violently demanding payments from ordinary citizens traveling and working in these spaces. Farmers had to sell their produce to cadres at reduced prices, so that the violent thugs could make free money by selling the produce to the public. Some of this money painfully taken from hardworking farmers almost certainly went up the ranks to very high offices in the country. Simply, life was made miserable and the economy harsher for ordinary citizens trying to go about their everyday lives. Compounding the situation, was that the madness could not be reported to the police, who had been prevented by power holders from touching a Chipani criminal.
So, what should happen? Simple really. Markets and bus stops should be spaces of enterprise for anyone who can survive the high adrenalin environment, therein. What the removal of the cadres does, is allow any Zambian who wishes to try their luck at irking out a living in the markets and bus stops to do so. Youth who think they can navigate the tough competition of Intercity or Soweto, in Lusaka, can go in, buy and sell, plait hair, cook nshima, polish shoes. They can even do a mungulu dance in a corner and be paid for it. What removing cadres does is ensure that what kwacha these citizens earn, is theirs to take home.
This, Daily Nation, is what the people who spent a night on voting queues were asking for – a chance to hustle without fear of a lawless thug taking away a K5 that could have made the difference between rape ya sholo and a bit of salad yopimisa.
So no, a newspaper that contributed to the runaway lawlessness we are trying to leave behind should not be allowed to get away with suggesting that Zambia owes thugs criminal livelihoods.