Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Four society organizations have accused the PF government of increasingly becoming authoritarian following the recent deportation of Kenyan lawyer and academician professor Patrick Lumumba.
The four organizations are the non government gender organisations’ coordinating council (ngocc), action aid Zambia, alliance for community action, caritas Zambia and Zambia council for social development.
in a statement issued on behalf of the four organizations, ngocc board chairperson sara longwe says they find it extremely hard to believe that Prof. Lumumba posed a security threat to the country as suggested by government.
ms longwe says the topic ‘ Africa in the age of Chinese influence and global geo dynamics’ professor Lumumba was to speak on could not by any stretch of imagination raise any security concerns.
she says by its conduct, the government is demonstrating high levels of intolerance to intellectualism and dissent considering the worrying trend of deportations that the country has made over the past year which include south African opposition democratic alliance leader Mmusi maimane in may 2017, performer Zodwa wabantu in march 2018 and Zimbabwean opposition leader and asylum seeker Tendai Biti in august 2018.
Ms Longwe says the civil society organizations feel the idea that a foreigner expressing views that the government may not agree with is a matter of national sovereignty is ridiculous.
she adds that it’s undemocratic as in a democracy the citizens should have access to any ideas that seek to inform them of the current state of affairs.
She states that Zambia is fast becoming a laughing stock internationally because of such undemocratic tendencies.
and ms Longwe says as civil society organizations they also remain deeply concerned at the revelations that certain donor countries have frozen aid to Zambia as a result of the misappropriation of funds intended for the poorest and most vulnerable citizens under the social cash transfer scheme.
She says the misappropriation of funds in this case is even more deplorable as it is literally stealing food from the months of the weakest and poorest in society where poverty often bears a female face.
Ms longwe says it’s shameful that such acts of depriving the poor by a few privileged can occur in a christian nation.
she adds that they are also concerned that it appears the full extent of the corruption has yet to be revealed.
She stresses that the combination of mounting debt and corruption is a deadly combination for a lot of Zambians who will be denied food, decent health care, education and sanitation as a result.