Patriotic Front deputy media director Antonio Mwanza says Zambia is not a kantemba where anyone like Kenyan law professor Patrick Lumumba can be allowed to come and “insult citizens”.

And Mwanza says he is happy the Patriotic Front government will soon start regulating social media because too many people are wasting time gossiping about who is sleeping with who.

Speaking when he featured on UNZA Radio’s Lusaka Star, Tuesday, Mwanza justified government’s decision to bar Prof Lumumba from entering the country saying such occurrences were a global phenomenon.

He vowed that the PF would continue protecting Zambia.

“This is not kantemba (kiosk) where anyone comes here and wants to do whatever they want. Even in a house, a child cannot enter the bedroom if the parents have not allowed them. There are rules, there are laws, there are regulations, we need to love and protect this country and stop this unpatriotism where you want to pull down your own country for the benefit of foreigners, for the benefit of outsiders, we must stop that and as Patriotic Front, as the ruling party, we will not allow this country to be turned into a kantemba where everyone wants to come and start playing sojo (kids games). He comes here, he wants to make money by insulting you and me that we are mad, ndise o funta sebo (are we mad)?” Mwanza asked.

“You must know that Tendai Miti told young people to rise up, he put them in harms way and him, he got into a latest V8 and ran away from his country, he told young people to go to the streets and expose themselves to risk and danger when him he was running away trying to come here and enjoy the comfort of five star hotels at Pamodzi and you call that patriotism. You go to embassies and see how many people are refused Visas and how many people have been denied entry, this is a global Phenomenon. In America today, Donald Trump, he is refusing a one-year-old child to enter America, separating a one-year-old child from the mother, imprisoning them. America deports over three million migrants every year so talk about these issues without understanding. This country must be protected and we as Patriotic Front will protect this country.”

And Mwanza said he was happy the PF was in the process of putting laws in place to regulate social media.

“The problem is that people in Zambia waste a lot of time commenting on useless things. if you see in the last three weeks, it has been ‘Zed Farmer’ (story on husband grabbing), everyone has been busy commenting on that, it has been ‘Pamela why’ (story on treacherous friends), we have failed to use social media as a tool for development, investment or as a tool for national building. That’s why I am happy that the Patriotic Front has taken recognition that social media is being abused and that there are cyber laws which are being put in place to protect innocent people,” he said.

He said whilst Zambians were wasting time gossiping on social media, the Chinese were working and making money, therefore it was useless to complain that foreigners were taking over everything.

“When you are talking about Pamela why, the Rwandese are busy organizing themselves to sell in shops. While you are talking about Zed farmer, the Rwandese and the Chinese are busy working. So if you want to spend your life gossiping about sex, gossiping about who is sleeping with who, gossiping about Pamela, you will continue to complain. That’s why the President was saying that we should run away from this culture of complaining about everything. There is no country which has been built on complaints. Countries have been built hard work, on solidarity, on patriotism, on commitment and if you want to use social media as a platform to complain, you can continue but there are enough Zambians, the majority of us who are working everyday to improve the lives of the people. So don’t complain about Rwandese, don’t complain about Chinese, in this country, we have a lot of Zambians who are in the diaspora doing the work that ordinary citizens are able to do,” said Mwanza.

“Go to South Africa and see Zambians there working as taxi drivers, go to America and see how many Zambians are there working as bum wipers. Go to Europe and see how many Zambians are working as doctors, as nurses, so this is a global village.”