People’s Party president Mike Mulongoti says the Patriotic Front administration is a group of extortionists who are only interested in what they can get from the Zambian people through excessive taxes.

And Mulungoti says it is surprising that the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) has jumped on the collection of TV levy when it has failed to regulate several issues at ZNBC.

Commenting on the government’s collection of double TV levy through ZESCO tariffs and TV service providers, Mulongoti said the PF was behaving like vampires by sucking even the little that citizens had out of them.

“This government is an extortionist government, they are extortionists all of them. The PF don’t care, they are just like vampires. Wherever they see blood, they want to suck. People have been complaining about the already unbearable taxes but they don’t care because vampires just don’t care, all they are interested in is sucking blood where possible. So when you have a government behaving like vampires, there is nothing much that people can do,” he said.

“Now we have become protesters, we protested but we’ve been ignored. Now we can only wait on time because this is just a matter of time. These TV levies are levies that were not supposed to even be there in the first place. But like I said this is an extortionist government so they want to overburden citizens at every chance they get. I honestly don’t understand why government should be fighting within structures, how is it that ZNBC, ZESCO and the Ministry of information did not coordinate about the adjustments in the collection of TV levy?”

And Mulongoti said IBA could not be tasked to collect TV levy because it had failed in its role of monitoring broadcast service provision in the country.

“Now the question is, is that normal really? Look, the service is being provided by someone else so why are you collecting money on their behalf? And worse off the IBA does not even provide a related service at all. I don’t understand. I think the only thing needed here is to reconstitute our administration in Zambia because everything has just collapsed,” said Mulongoti.

“So that (Josephine) Mopama is a beneficiary of TV first of all, TV levy is what ensures her heavy salary and does she care how you pay it? And why should the whole of IBA be tasked to oversee the collection of TV levy of all the things that have gone wrong at ZNBC? And what has IBA done itself from the time it was created that gives it the right to monitor the operations of other institutions? IBA has done nothing, its a toothless organisation whose mandate is still unknown to many Zambians. So that Mapoma should just keep quiet if she has failed to regulate the running of ZBNC instead of starting to jump on the collection of TV levy.”