Fourth Republican president Rupiah Banda has refuted a false article written by Zambia Daily Mail political appointee who is deputy managing editor Anthony Mukwita claiming he was involved in a plan to oust opposition Movement for Multi-Party Democracy leader Nevers Mumba.
Mukwita, who is a stooge of Patriotic Front chief propagandist Fred M’membe, has been trying to make himself appear using to the Patriotic Front government with false stories about president Banda and his family.
The former Bloomberg stringer known better for begging whisky in the showgrounds and at Rhapsody works in liaison with M’membe, information permanent secretary Amos Malupenga and Sata’s spokesperson George Chellah to advance The Post agenda of discrediting Banda.
“They are using the Daily Mail to publish some of these stories because they don’t want it to look like it is an agenda by Fred M’membe alone. So Mukwita is very key to this plan.
“If you notice, the story did not have a name of the reporter who wrote because most of the journalists at the Daily Mail are refusing to be used and have told Mukwita that it is their names that will be in trouble and not those of their masters,” a source said.
Below is a statement from President Banda’s deputy administrative assistant Kennedy Limwanya.
We wish to dismiss the story that appeared in the Zambia Daily Mail edition of today, Friday, 5th July, 2013, under the headline “RB plots against Nevers Mumba” with the contempt it deserves.
To begin with, we would like to place on record our admiration for the professionalism that nearly all journalists at the Daily Mail continue to exhibit in their pursuit of fair and balanced reporting.
There is no fairness, however, in the story that has alleged that His Excellency Rupiah Bwezani Banda, the Fourth President of the Republic of Zambia, is working with Solwezi member of Parliament Lucky Mulusa to replace opposition Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) president Nevers Mumba.
While the story alleges that there is “an elaborate plan to oust” Dr Mumba, there is no demonstration of how that plan is to be carried out and how much Mr Banda is involved.
Mr Banda should, therefore, not be drawn into a matter that is entirely an MMD’s or, as MMD deputy national secretary Chembe Nyangu has stated, the work of those “outside the party”.
The former president has been in retirement since he voluntarily relinquished the MMD presidency early last year and, although he is constitutionally eligible to run for the republican presidency again, has decided to devote his time to challenges at continental level.
In an effort to give credence to the Daily Mail story, the anonymous author even goes further to say an effort was made to phone the former president whose phone “went unanswered” and that his aides “did not pick up calls”.
We wish to state that at no time yesterday was President Banda or any of his assistants called by the Daily Mail regarding any story.
Our humble advice is that if there are any journalists at the Daily Mail who would like to justify their appointments, there are better ways of doing that than by thriving on concoctions that do not add value to the journalism profession.
We also take this opportunity to state that President Banda is a firm believer in constitutionalism, which is why he agrees with MMD deputy national secretary Mr Chembe Nyangu’s statement that a party convention is the best platform for replacing political party leaders.
Issued by:
Kennedy Limwanya
Deputy Administrative Assistant
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