INFORMATION and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana has asked Zambians to pray for President Hakainde Hichilema as they go to vote on August 13.
Meanwhile, Kawana says he will speak when need be, as it is his job to defend the government, despite him being a civil servant.
Speaking during the ‘Mind Your Business’ podcast, Monday, Kawana said Zambians should also pray for President Hichilema as they head home after casting their vote.
“Zambians should begin by waking up and praying for President Hakainde Hichilema, then they go and line up and they go and vote for him. And when they vote for him, they should again pray for him as they go home. You want me to tell them [Zambians] not to vote for him? The context of campaigning that I’m talking about is where I go and stand at a political rally,” he said.
And Kawana has called on civil servants not involve themselves in politics, but notes that it is difficult to separate governance from politics.
“My comment is simply that for those of us in government, let us do our job. We just do our job. My job is to speak on behalf of government, my job is to defend the government, so I just do my job. Now if you are going to view it as political, that is your problem, it has nothing to do with me. So for example, somebody claims the government has done this, who will answer? It is me. And when I answer that politician, then I’m told ‘you are being political, you are a civil servant, you can’t speak to politics’. No sir, you can’t separate governance [and] politics from mixing up,” he said.
“Government is governance, governance is born out of politics. That’s why political parties have gone to the people to politic, to present themselves. When they are voted for, they form government. So you cannot take away from that. So we will talk when we need to talk. We will defend the government where we need to defend the government, but also we will propagate what government has done when we need to do so. We will not be gagged”.
Asked if he would be okay if a civil servant decided to de-campaign President Hichilema, Kawana said that would not be tolerated.
“We would not waste time. That would be the end of employment for that person. Because who sent him there? You can’t do that. You can’t bite the finger that is feeding you. The President sends you to France, then you in France you say ‘me I’m tired, I’m going home to de-campaign the President’. You have resigned. That’s resignation. We won’t tell you anything. We just say you know where to leave the car, the house, the keys. You leave them with this one,” he said.
“For me, I have said somebody should show me one day when they saw me campaigning. To campaign is to be part of the political movement. You can even go to a rally or you can even go to where there is a by-election, then all of a sudden you have a job to do there, you are also touring projects same day. From the time this government was formed, from the time some of us were appointed, you have never seen me at a political party rally. You have never seen me going to work in an area where there was an active by-election, never. So I have dared people. I have even stashed money and said there is a K20,000 here if you prove to me that you have seen me at a political rally or even if you have seen me at a political party secretariat, zero. I have also said if you have seen me wearing political party regalia, just bring the picture. Up to now no one can do that”.
Meanwhile, speaking at a media briefing, Tuesday, Kawana said claims by Chris Zimba that NRPUP would win Elections were laughable.
“One of them we saw last night on television claiming that they have got evidence of people telling them both internationally and locally that they are going to win. They are experts that have told them that they are going to win election. That person that was on television last night and claiming this is the very person that was hired by former president Edgar Lungu as an adviser politically. He told him the same that sir, international reports are showing you are winning. That sir, local reports are showing that you are winning and you are winning by over 70 percent. And this time around, we were looking at him last night and we were saying sir, he was saying that international reports are suggesting that they are winning. Good luck,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kawana disputed concerns that the ministry had been quiet over the arrest of ZNBC journalst MacPherson Mukuka, arguing that it was a “law breaker” who was arrested.
“Some stakeholders have been raising concern that our ministry is quiet when a journalist has been arrested. We want to make it clear that there is no journalist who has been arrested. But there is a law breaker that has been arrested. When you break the law, you do not break the law whilst wearing your jacket or the jacket of your profession. So if you are a teacher and you break the law, it’s not that a teacher has been arrested. It is that the person that broke the law has been arrested. So even now we will tell you that our ministry is aware of the case involving a member of staff at the ZNBC, and the ministry remains knowledgeable that no journalist has been arrested. But rather, a person that broke the law has since been arrested,” said Kawana.
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