BREBNER Changala says booing a Head of State is normal in any political set up.
And Changala charged that ZNBC has become a carrier of hate speech against the people of Southern Province.
Last week, President Edgar Lungu was booed in Monze, while Livingstone residents refused to acknowledge his greeting gestures.
Commenting on the two incidents, Changala, a good governance and human rights activist, said people had a right to express displeasure over President Lungu’s poor governance.
“I have seen that PF have taken a field day over this issue. First of all, President Edgar Lungu must show leadership; he can’t continue to be an absentee landlord. What happened in Monze will be happening wherever President Lungu goes because he has lost favour and legitimacy from the people,” he said. “And it is not the first time that a president is being booed in Zambia. It happened to Dr Kenneth Kaunda in 1991, even though the man was innocent and humble. It happened to Rupiah Banda who was booed by PF cadres wherever he went. PF thugs masquerading as cadres called president Banda a nyamasoya (an imitation of meat). But the man never took it personal, he just joked over it and moved on.”
Changala reminded President Lungu that Zambia was not a monarch but a representative democracy.
“He should control his ministers who are plotting against [UPND leader] Hakainde Hichilema that if he goes to such and such a province, they will attack him. President Lungu is not running a monarch like his friend [King] Mswati in Swaziland; this is a democracy where people are free to express displeasure at their leaders,” he said. “We know that even his own people, both in Cabinet and in the PF are not happy with him; they talk. I want to warn President Lungu that the tribal conduct that he is now promoting against the people of Southern Province will backfire on him; he will fail to control it.”
And Changala challenged the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) to be a people’s broadcaster, and not PF’s.
“When he arrived there, ZNBC said that President Lungu had received a thunderous welcome in Southern Province. But two days later he was booed. And now ZNBC has been carrying interviews with loose characters like [district commissioners] DCs, ministers who have been demonising the people of Southern Province. That is stupidity of the highest order. And these (southerners) are people who also contribute financially to the sustenance of ZNBC because it is a public entity,” said Changala. “Why has ZNBC not interviewed the people that booed President Lungu to hear their reasons? Why are they carrying out a one-sided propaganda against Tongas? In fact, ZNBC is now a carrier of hate speech against one tribe, the Tongas. We have ministers calling upon other Zambians to treat the people of Southern Province in a manner that excludes them from the One Zambia, One Nation motto. This is absolutely wrong! Yes, President Lungu was booed, but he shouldn’t unleash ministers on ordinary people who were just expressing their displeasure.”