IT’S EARLY CHRISTMAS AT ZNBC AS STAFF CELEBRATE EMMANUEL MWAMBA’S EXIT There is massive celebration at ZNBC following news that Information Permanent Secretary Emmanuel Mwamba has been ‘demoted’ to Cabinet Office as PS. Upon ZNBC employees receiving the news from State House that the overzealous Mwamba had been transferred, jubilation engulfed the national broadcaster. Mwamba had put his heavy hand on ZNBC such that managers had started defying his politically inclined instructions. Due to this, ZNBC Director General Chibamba Kanyama and TV1 Assignments Editor Kennedy Bwalya were this week earmarked for replacement. However, newsroom staff were unhappy and they secretly organised a protest against Mwamba which was supposed to take place Monday morning. But Mwamba got wind of it and quickly ordered the heavily compromised Zambia Union of Broadcasters and other Information Disseminators (ZUBID) to diffuse the tension. Just when the protest against Mwamba was about to start Monday morning, ZUBID President Chomba Yumbe and his General Secretary Martin Maseka, both of whom have been puppets of Mwamba, went to the newsroom to sugarcoat Mwamba’s misdeeds. However, they were received with missiles from journalists who felt the the union had betrayed them. Sources have told us that reporter Katwishi Bwalya told off Yumbe that if reporters are not protected, they will down tools in protest against Mwamba’s schemes. In’utu Mwanza, Paul Shalala and Bright Mukwasa were some of people who reprimanded the ‘toothless’ union for not protecting people like Melesiana Chibwe, Lucy Nampemba and Lillian Kalaba who were transferred without a reason and also ZUBID’s continuous silence on the victimisation of reporters. According to insiders within ZNBC management, Mwamba had been pressuring ZNBC Director News and Current Affairs Kenneth Maduma and Director Human Resource Mukubesa Sanyambe to replace Assignments Editor Kennedy Bwalya with Mwamba’s stooge Cosmas Chileshe. Cosmas is the boy behind the negative anti-Wynter Kabimba stories and the positive stories to prop up the tribal clique parallel structure operating inside PF for which Emmanuel Mwamba is the propagandist. When management refused to promote Cosmas, Mwamba changed his strategy and schemed to bring back from Kitwe, Chansa Mayani to replace Kennedy Bwalya and management had been given up to Wednesday this week failure to which Chibamba Kanyama would have been replaced by a Director General from outside the company. According to some sub-editors, Cosmas Chileshe had become so powerful that he used to bully around other editors in editorial meetings. ”Cosmas usually works on copy in the newsroom but he used to come down stairs in Edit One to instruct us and ensure we put all good GBM stories and prioritise all anti-Kabimba stories in the first half of the 19hrs TV news. Cosmas had become so powerful that he used to boast that no one could threaten him because he was getting orders from Emmanuel Mwamba,” said a ZNBC sub editor. Another sub editor has revealed that Cosmas’ power was also compounded by ZNBC Controller News Nkamu Nkamu who he was working with to discredit Wynter Kabimba. “Nkamu is a blue eyed man who needs to be retired in national interest. At the height of the anti-Kabimba campaigns, he used to be constantly on the phone, relaying instructions from Emmanuel Mwamba to editors at ZNBC. He is a turncoat who heavily supported MMD that time but now he wants to show off as if he is a pro- PF and pro-GBM guy. Only time will tell.” - See more at: source4zambia/?p=445#sthash.G8uC4Ivp.dpuf
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 08:28:47 +0000
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