IGNORANT CALLERS SHOCK M’MEMBE

IGNORANT CALLERS SHOCK M’MEMBE

…Send informed radio callers to engage us, he advises UPND

By Thandizo Banda

SOCIALIST Party (SP) leader and 2026 presidential candidate Dr Fred M’membe is shocked at the pathetic calibre of the callers the United Party for National Development (UPND) has sponsored to challenge government critics on live radio and television programmes.

The UPND media team has a legion of cadres whom it has bought small phones and gives talk time to be calling mainly radio stations during live programmes to insult those criticising President Hakainde Hichilema and the government.

“Give them [hired serial callers] facts and not this worrisome trend of them calling in with repeated shallow stuff and abuses against perceived opponents of Hichilema and the UPND. The level of on-air disrespect and humiliation of elderly citizens of high social standing is very high,” Dr M’membe said.

He advised the UPND to educate or replace the “shallow” cadres with more informed ones for meaningful and respectful engagement.

Dr M’membe said this when he featured with SP secretary general Dr Cosmas Musumali on Radio Phoenix’s ‘Let the People Talk’ live interview.

He was commenting on the comments by UPND sponsored callers identifying themselves as Lukulu Voice, Morgan Chilonda, Namanda and a few others who had earlier attacked lawyer and Patriotic Front (PF) presidential hopeful Makebi Zulu when he featured on Hot FM before switching to Radio Phoenix.

“In as much as the common voice [callers] might want to hide their true identities by giving fictitious names [pseudonyms], other callers are able to identify them by their accents,” Dr M’membe said.

He was shocked at the illiteracy and lack of information exhibited by the sponsored callers who everyday juggle from one radio station to another to attack opposition leaders and other critics of the UPND government.

Dr M’membe advised the UPND media team at the party’s secretariat to provide the ignorant, emotional and usually abusive cadres with useful information, unlike the insults and rehearsed weak arguments they are specialised in spewing, usually parroting their leaders without providing facts.

He said the UPND was using dead propaganda and lies in a bid to discredit other political leaders who did not agree with it.

Dr M’membe advised the UPND to identify credible individuals with the required competencies to engage in high-calibre debates instead of using the current crop who only know how to insult and parrot certain unsupported claims by the current government.

SP secretary general Dr Cosmas Musumali challenged UPND leaders to promote high-level debates by taming their members and sympathisers from daily insults and humiliation of opposition leaders during public discussions.

Meanwhile, Dr M’membe has said Zambians were forewarned by successful past presidents about Hichilema’s insatiable appetite for telling lies and many are now regretting voting for him in 2021.

“It is in the public domain how late former president Levy Mwanawasa called Hichilema a liar, Michael Sata said the same, and our late founding father [Dr Kenneth Kaunda] did not trust him for the presidency,” he said.

Dr M’membe said the opposition was ready for meaningful discourse with like-minded individuals as opposed to the mediocrity being brought to the political discussions as rebuttals by the UPND.

He accused Hichilema of having lied about numerous things, including the status of Zambia’s relationship with neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.

“Politics is all about perception and HH, who has not visited Zimbabwe and rarely Malawi in the last five years, should have even given an excuse for not attending the inauguration,” Dr M’membe said.

Dr Musumali said Hichilema would have done better by staying away from attending the inauguration of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassain for a disputed re-election at the end of the month, which led to the death of more than 700 people in post-election violence.

He questioned Zambia’s hosting of Israeli President Isaac Herzog soon after the Gaza war in which Israel allegedly massacred over 75,000 civilians.

He said of the 75,000 people, 72 per cent were children and women.