Kabimba accuses Emmanuel Mwamba of trying ‘to destroy the public media

In a strongly-worded letter addressed to Mr Mwamba, copied to the Minister of Information Mwansa Kapeya and public media heads, dated October 3, 2013, titled ‘politicisation of the public media’, Mr Kabimba said in the last week, he had seen several headlines against him in the public media.
He accused Mr Mwamba of trying ‘to destroy the public media in order to please his paymasters and their cronies.
“As secretary General of the Patriotic Front, I shall not sit back and allow such a situation to continue unabated to the detriment of national development.
“I have a duty to protect the majority interest of this country against turncoats whose objective is to serve narrow personal interests of their paymasters.”
Mr Kabimba said he had seen several headlines against him in the Zambia Daily Mail and Times of Zambia which were so personal in nature and style that they were unexpected from the Government media against a sitting minister of Government.
“Your insidious activities since you assumed your new position come against the background when members of the public were beginning to show some confidence in the renewed professionalism in the public media under the PF Government,” he said.
Mr Kabimba, who is Justice Minister in his letter, recalled that two weeks ago, he telephoned Mr Mwamba to express his concern about the pronouncements advising the public media to discontinue the practice by some government ministers who wanted to be accompanied by
preferred reporters, while on duty outside Lusaka.
In the said telephone conversation, Mr Kabimba said he also advised Mr Mwamba to remain professional in the execution of his responsibility as Permanent Secretary.
Mr Kabimba wondered why the advice given by Vice-President Guy Scott in an interview with the Post Newspaper dated September 29, 2013 had not been heeded by the public media.
He accused Mr Mwamba of not having the party’s interest at heart and that he was feeding from ‘late former president Frederick Chiluba and former president Rupiah Banda’s plates’ at the time when he (Mr Kabimba) and others were building the PF.
He said as Secretary General of the party, he was the custodian of the party’s manifesto which outlined all social and economic programmes of the Government.
“I am also the official spokesman of the party. In my various contacts and meetings with our party members and the general public, I am enjoined with the duty to inform them about the successes of the PF through Government implementation of its programmes,” he said.
Mr Kabimba said he knew that this did not matter to Mr Mwamba since at the time when they were struggling to build the PF, he was busy feeding from the late Dr Chiluba and Mr Banda’s plates.
“You are, therefore, not expected to show any sense of commitment or loyalty to this party. After all, in the event of the PF’s failure to form Government at any time in future, you shall move to another political party in government.
“You cannot in this respect be President Sata’s protégé more than me as you would want to project in the manner you intend to politicise the public media,” he said.
Mr Kabimba has since asked Mr Kapeya to give him the steps the ministry intends to take to save the public media from what he termed the imminent collapse again.