HOME Affairs Minister Hon Stephen Kampyongo has charged that there is no graft being concealed with regards to the procurement of Zambia Police camping equipment unit that includes the much talked about 100 bicycles.
Speaking at a joint media briefing with Ministers of Energy, Youth and Sport, Traditional Affairs, and Information and Broadcasting Services in Lusaka today, Hon Kampyongo said the 2013 dated procurement of equipment for the security departments under the Ministry of Home Affairs through Polytech of China is in public domain.
The Minister said that Government will not sit idle and allow unscrupulous people to go about creating falsehoods against the state through social media.
Hon Kampyongo said that Government through the security wings has made tremendous progress in tracking down criminals who are taking advantage of social media to malign government and other law abiding citizens undeservedly.
“Investigations in the concoction of a statement attributed to myself as Minister of Home Affairs having Confirmed Hakainde’s illusions that each of the bicycles costed 700 United States dollars are progressing very well and I should hasten to mention that Facebook is cooperating very well with our law enforcement agencies in tracking down the genesis of this concoction and a whole lot of other cyber crimes” Hon Kampyongo said.
Hon Kampyongo further said that it was unfortunate to see the likes of Embattled MMD Leader Nevers Mumba wanting to lecture government on diplomatic etiquette based on a fake story published in his name by unscrupulous people.
And the Home Affairs Minister has disclosed that phase one of the Mobile issuance of National Registration Cards (NRC) is due to commence in August 2020 prior to the Registration of Voters by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).
Hon Kampyongo said his ministry is targeting to register One Million Five Hundred Thousand (1,500.000) people in total as the exercise commences.
He said government wants to ensure that all Zambian citizens ranging from rural to urban areas are given equal opportunities to cement their nationality and citizenship by acquiring National Registration Cards.
“From Preliminary preparations so far, the ECZ has indicated that they will commence voter registration in October 2020 and that has left us at Home Affairs with a very limited period to conduct our Mobile NRC registration exercise considering that we didn’t foresee the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic underwhich we have to conduct our two phased exercise” Hon Kampyongo said.
Meanwhile Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Hon Lawrence Sichalwe has dismissed social media reports suggesting that government wants to dethrone Paramount Chief Gawa Undi of the Chewa speaking people of the Eastern Province.
Hon Sichalwe said that contrary to social media concoctions, government enjoys very warm relations with Paramount Chief Gawa Undi and all other traditional leaders in the country.
“It is extremely baffling to note the amount of ignorance and propaganda being peddled through social media by ill meaning Zambians, those of you who have read our laws will agree with me that His Excellency the President or the office itself has no authority whatsoever to choose who gets to ascend to a particular traditional throne, because that decision is made by the individual Tradional Royal Councils, so ignore such falsehoods” Hon Sichalwe Said.
And On Her Part, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Hon Dora Siliya says that it is criminal for anyone to purposely create fake news and try to incite members of the public to raise against their elected government.
She said that developments such as the procurement of the Ministry of Home Affairs Equipment through Polytech a Chinese Company in 2013 are in the public domain making it unfortunate for anyone to want to insinuate otherwise.
Hon Siliya said President Edgar Chagwa Lungu and his Government have enough respect for traditional leadership countrywide.
Why does it take you a century to put out correct information to the public? What about the Japanese government donation claim and the rebuttal of the claim?
Can someone please wake me up from this bad dream. What kind of low life people are we dealing with…I can’t believe what I’m reading..The thieves almost got caught now they are trying to use every trick in the book of thieves to cover up. I’m glad that Japan cleared the air…Japanese people are straight forward people…You fools picked the wrong country. It’s a little too late now..
Tell them papa. The error was corrected and even our Japanese partners accepted the apology for the minor oversight. So who are you there in diaspora to continue crying and screaming like a pregnant horse over this issue. Grow up
Kaizar you are an 1doit, just like your dull thieving useless one ball boss…….
Ba imbwa imwe you be barking in jail
@Kaizar Zulu..We all know the game you are playing it’s not working. Look you are the one in the diaspora to begin with..this is real for people on the ground…the situation is bad..no money in the circulation everything is expensive, on top of that we are dealing with the thugs the PF caders….out of everything dealing with the thugs is the worst because the Police habe become useless. And the so called stupid ministers have became so pompous…the example is this fat round ugly face Kaponyonyo…I can’t stand this freak…He has forgotten that he works for the people, we pay for that stubid SUV he drives.
What do you expect when you have cadres in influential positions. Who said Japan donated?
what’s the answer kanshi iwe kaachikkala? How much are the $700 bicycles? Is it $1700?
And why did you lie that Japan donated? Why did you think Japan are PF to help you hide stuff?
A thief is more angry about who alerted the authorities of his bad deeds….here is a classic example instead being transparent and accountable he is talking about arresting people on social media.
Facebook cooperating with a dictator government?
Very funny.
Those scare tactics will not work.
You are all thieves and have ruined our country.
Your time to vacate office is close.
These Pf criminals have no shame in lying anymore. Can you imagine this foool Kampyongo lying that Facebook is cooperating with them to track down the source of this lie. Facebook is not doing anything like that. This is a blatant lie. The whole world knows by now that the Zambian PF leadership is THE MOST CORRUPT LEADERSHIP ON EARTH. You think Facebook has time to be tracking down who is saying what about PF’s corruption? Id1ot. Just prepare to go to jail next year, you criminals. It’s you that lied to the Zambian people that the bicycles were a gift from Japan. When Japan denied it, you changed the tune and said the bikes came from China. That didn’t come from Facebook. If anything, Facebook should sue you for lying on them too. You bandits.
Pathetic Fools will be properly audited next year. Let them lie today they think they will be in power forever. We are the voters and we will show you the way to prison for destroying our country’s reputation
Kuya bebele….Tic Toc
The biggest mistake that our abled minister keeps making is threatening citizens with tracking them. The 2021 election maybe already be won if we avoid such. People want free expression. Just allow them like Mwanawasa did. People cherish freedom more than food and education combined. I
Now I am dizzy with confusion. We now have this Polytech information on top of some procurement gig from India, si teto? We also have a permanent secretary who actually confirmed a handover by Japan before the honorable excellencies at that embassy politely refused to corroborate. It appears there is a corner into which these guys are backing. Might be time to fumigate…
there is something terrible wrong with our Government leaders.. I cant help but empathies with them. Truly it is a free for all and everyone is flip flopping ,crisis managing without proper planning……. Zambians deserves better than this….. We are in a competitive global village. We need to set benchmarks to outperform our neighbours in southern Africa….. We can do it . let us set KPIs from individual and national level
This confusion was created by your own government. If it didnt come from the govt, it could have been treated as fake news but govt it self gave conflicting statements. If it was just an error of reporting why did it have to take Japan to rebattal the claim?I dont know what is really wrong with you guys but everything is showing a sign of dis-functional govt. Pull up your socks or leave the floor for others to show you their dance.
Say these same CROOKS who reassured Zedians they were above board in the Mukula Scandal & “WERE GOING TO SUE”
We are STILL WAITING, though not patiently.
Lastly #P.F.MUSTGO!
Do these ministers need orientation on how to use face masks?This is not the first time I have seen Kampyongo with his face mask removed when talking.Now if the man does not know how to use a face mask why cant even his colleagues help him?If you have noticed Dora is a good example of how to use a face mask,she always keeps it on when talking.I have also noticed Lusambo,Foreign Affairs minister remove their masks when talking.Or maybe they think they can abuse covid 19 rules and get away with it like they abuse the Public Order Act
“And On Her Part, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Hon Dora Siliya says that it is criminal for anyone to purposely create fake news”, actually madam if you do some reading you’ll find that the Law does not agree with you on this statement. Take the Case of Fred M’membe & Mcdonald Chipenzi V The Attorney General (though i stand to be corrected on the citation).
This Madness should be stopped come 2021. These Thieves have no Shame. Why spend all that Money for stupid Bicycles? Would that Kind of a Bicycle cost $700? Zambian wake up and fight for your rights.
Zambian social media outlets are an utter disgrace to themselves. Trading tit tat and unreconstructed trash as news. I have been studying many platforms since 2014 and frankly a lot of them just sensationalize Zambian issues. Some are downright deceitful, like a certain prolific madame on YouTube whose tactics are fraudulent and liable to get her investigated for false claims on products she is peddling. They can’t even disseminate news items which they aggregate and feed into their sites. Misinterpretation, and a poor ability to comprehend the news items they pick. It’s horrible to see such mediocrity being used to incite even more ignorant followers of those sites. It doesn’t occur to these people that Digital Media Journalism is something you go to university to study how to…
Zambian social media outlets are an utter disgrace to themselves. Trading tit tat and unreconstructed trash as news. I have been studying many platforms since 2014 and frankly a lot of them just sensationalize Zambian issues. It’s horrible to see such mediocrity being used to incite even more ignorant followers of those sites. It doesn’t occur to these people that Digital Media Journalism is something you go to university to study how to do it. Anybody can have a YouTube channel but readers should be discerning and read credible educated sites, not howling and off piste quackery.