Lunte PF member of parliament Mutotwe Kafwaya has told Parliament that ZNBC is only for government officials because opposition political parties who do not have policies would waste the national broadcaster’s airtime talking about presidential petitions which do not exist.

Debating the 2018 budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Kafwaya said ZNBC should not be allowed to air any views from the opposition.

“Many people when referring to ZNBC say that this institution only shows the President, the vice president, ministers and government officials to the exclusion of other players, specifically the opposition political players. I do think to some extent this is true. But I ask the question, why should opposition political players want to dominate ZNBC when when in fact they don’t carry government policy?” Kafwaya asked.

“The purpose of ZNBC is to show the Zambian people what government is doing for them. If we say everyone must have the same share we will be hearing such things that there is a presidential petition in court on ZNBC. That’s what we will be hearing. People will be going to ZNBC to go and say that there is an active presidential petition in court when in fact there is nothing because that’s what politicking is about. Its about misleading for some.”

He said ZNBC belonged to those in government and not those opposing government programmes.

“Mr chairman you go to an international platform to go and tell the world that in Zambia there is a presidential petition in court. Where is the presidential petition? There is no presidential petition anywhere in this country. This is not what we want to see on ZNBC. Mr chairman, ZNBC is an institution for government and not an institution for the opposition,” said Kafwaya.

“Therefore ZNBC must promote activities for government. Those who say we must have a fair share, it is a dream which I don’t see being fulfilled unless the purpose of ZNBC changes because its mandate is to promote information on social cultural and economic development. What economic development will you get from an opposition? If you want to bring those oppositions and line them up on ZNBC them we are not promoting what the actual purpose of ZNBC is! In this country the only opposition is UPND which is unfortunate. Because in a diversified political dispensation we are supposed to have many political parties. For UPND sadly, their manifesto is one sheet of paper with only 10 points. Is that what you want to show on ZNBC? 10 points?” Kafwaya questioned.”