Zambian candidate stresses press freedom

By Namrata Savoor
freedomforum.org

06.08.01

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Anderson Mazoka

ARLINGTON, Va. — Increasing government accountability, eliminating corruption and encouraging a free press are his party's main priorities, said Anderson Mazoka, presidential candidate for the upcoming 2001 elections in Zambia, on June 7 at a Newsmaker program at The Freedom Forum.

"The first thing we want to do is to bring integrity to the government," Mazoka said. Mazoka is the president of the United Party for National Development, a major political party in Zambia. "We have a mission and a responsibility to push Zambia forward," he said.

Under President Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's social and economic system is in shambles, Mazoka said. Zambia is currently the second poorest country in Africa, Mazoka said, with a 94% unemployment rate. A majority of its citizens live in abject poverty and thousands of children live on the streets, as their families are unable to support them, he said. There is "general despair in the country," he said.

For the common man, "medical treatment is nonexistent," Mazoka said, and people are dying of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. However, ministers are not adversely affected by the lack of good medical facilities, he said. Ailing government officials use government funds and transportation to seek medical treatment in South Africa, he said.

Mazoka said they condone this behavior and "we want government leaders to know that those funds are public and that the priority of expenditure must be to the benefit of the public, not the ministers."

But corruption "is the No. 1 problem" in the government, Mazoka said. For example, he said, a European trader complained to him that three government officials were demanding heavy bribes in exchange for permission to sell maize in Zambia.

Chiluba's quest for a third term in office was quashed under pressure from the opposition parties, civil society and the churches, Mazoka said. Although he has backed down, Mazoka said he is not convinced that Chiluba will keep his word.

Chiluba has expelled opposition factions in his party and has set the stage to seek a third term, Mazoka said. "He has … stooges left in Parliament and in 45 days he can change the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term," he said.

Mazoka said the independent press had suffered for exposing the government's shortcomings. The Zambian independent newspaper The Post, which Mazoka founded, was harassed by the government for writing negative stories about the leadership, he said.

"Access to the media must be made open," Mazoka said, adding that when his party comes into power, it intends to "further privatize the media including the government print media and the electronic media."

At this time, the state-controlled Zambia Broadcasting Corp. runs the major television and radio stations, said Joan Mower, director of African and Latin American programs at The Freedom Forum. Of the major daily newspapers, two are state-controlled and one newspaper, The Post, is independent, Mower said.

As the founder of The Post, Mazoka said he was proud of the newspaper's bid to report freely. The Post "as an investment has brought zero return, but for the purpose that we set (it) up, it has brought a dividend — freedom of the press," he said.

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