By Sunday Chanda
On its front-page story Friday, The Post claims that its newsroom has moved to Cathedral of the Christ Jesus for fear of attacks by the ruling party. The paper claims it did so on the advise of the Zambia Police. This follows the paper’s failure to reach a negotiated settlement with Zambia Revenue Authority that has been pursuing it for outstanding tax obligations stretching as far back as 2009.
The Patriotic Front knows that The Post’s decision to seek refuge in a church is not on account of imaginary attacks from the ruling party but instead a cowardly act that seeks but in vain to escape the long arm of the tax collector. We wish to remind The Post that the measure of man lies in his or her willingness to take responsibility for his actions and meet his obligations to society.
The paper has exhibited colossal forms of irresponsibility by pocketing the money the Zambian people have been paying every time they bought its publication. Instead, without any shade of shame, the paper’s proprietor has gone on to embellish his empire with all manner of luxury while the rest of us are taxed and our taxes go on to build the very roads and other infrastructure he continued to use without contributing to.
A man who lives this kind of a lie does not even need a whiff of breath from the PF because his own wrong doings are his waterloo. We are also aware that the influence of The Post on the Zambian people is exaggerated and mostly a fig mentation of the owner’s imagination. Zambians have multiple sources of information and sufficiently intelligent to understand the failed agenda-setting role of The Post. For this reason, again, it would be a sheer waste of our energies to seek to close a paper that has become a voice for political spent forces.
We know the paper is desperately reaching out to the international community in the hope of relief and media awards for manufactured persecution and bravery. Our President has and continues to engage the International Community through their representatives in the country and the position of government’s position clearly stated; we have nothing to do with the closure The Post!
We just wish to appeal to The Post not to drag the House of God in their own mad by desecrating its holy grounds peddling wares that do not conform to the country’s tax laws. The church, since the days of Jesus, has always recognized citizens’ obligations to the state as the Son of Man Himself demonstrated. It`s therefore hard to imagine that someone should seek to run away from an obligation that the place he is seeking sanctuary in urges its own members to respect.
Iwe Sunday, please spare us the garbage and keep your mouth shut. PF will never recognize you. You just wasting your time
This dude is a classic example of Sebana wikute, a shameless unwanted unsolicited spokesman of PF. He and Hapunda have been humiliated time and time again by the PF hierarchy but my goodness! where they find the strength to bounce back every time to have their faces punched again is a mystery.
For the US to be ‘silent’ for this long it means they have sufficient intelligence information that Membe has been stealing from Zambians and they don’t want to be used as ponies. They could have twisted the arm of government by slapping sanctions and by now the Post could have already opened. Yes, Chanda is right………..by shielding the Post, the church is actually breaking what Jesus commanded us to do…….’Pay Kaisala what belongs to Kaisala’.
Its amazing how the line between the executive functions and party operations fade out during election season.The party seems to want to take credit for executive successes and justify executive failures. The issue of taxes has nothing to do with the of as a party. I realize if the Post were set free the damage it would cause to the party’s chances of retaining political power would be considerable. But chances are not being improved by Utterances such as Chanda’s. It just heightens acrimony between the party and the post sympathizers.
Sunday, at times just enjoy the national resources and keep quiet. Sunday, you think people cannot see through your schemes, and the church can accept that which they think is wrong. Just keep quoting the Christians for Lungu, leave the men and women who standards on principle to save this nation for God is a great God who sees through simple minds.
MASUKU MU NSKETE is still able to bark!!! Those NSKETE sometimes look like ICHIPATO on his face!!
Mu le longa uno mwaka ba PamaFi!!! The hour has come to be flushed down the PIT LATERINE!!!
Vote WISELY 11/8/2016!! Vote ZAMBIA FORWARD!! VOTE UPND!!
#Chagwamustfall!! #PamaFikuyabebele!!
I thank you!!
@Sauzande: Read the story again! The problem with M’membe/The Post is that, he himself seems to have trouble differentiating between PF and Govt. This is the reason why you have PF Party operatives like Sunday Chanda taking him on. PF maybe the Party in Govt at the the moment, but certain PF is NOT Govt! And M’membe should learn to pick a fight with the RIGHT OPPONENT in his fights with the Govt over his Tax problems. Why would the PF as a Party go and attack him (M’membe) over Tax at wherever place he was hiding at? Do you think this is just classic M’membe trying to slander the PF and gain some sympathy for the Party (UPND) he is supporting in these elections? And sure you don expect the PF as a Party to stay silent when that happens, do you? The same way we don’t any other…
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The same way we don’t expect any other Political Party, including UPND, to stay mute when they are being slandered.
Sunday maaf****king chanda…. just do your thing incognito like brian.
Three minibuses loaded with PF cadres attacked Post reporters at Bwinjimfumu and thus the relocation to the cathedral.
More like pf scared of free and fair elections so they find all means to close independent media. Lungu has learned well from mugabe. Vote upnd bane
Iwe chi Sunday you can’t even be ashamed do you really think properly, how many people are suffering coz of closure of post, how many companies are owing ZRA including your deadNBC and you think we are dull like you who is so egocentric and no integrity in your life even the so called pf have seen nothing in you that’s why they fired you. Spare us with your yapping we are not interested with people who always think about their stomach instead of considering the suffering of masses. shame on you and find something to do.
Foolish this is a straight forward answer just pay back the money and you shall be free to do your nonsense. We tired of the Post being the paper of lies. Face your lies and look at it now no one wants to help paying the money. Even the little fools who are in support of the Post can’t help in paying the tax. Rubbish just use the brains for once and see sense in ZRA.
You f00ls. why are you promoting crime. mention the companies which are owing ZRA and they will pounce on them 53 million of stolen taxes is criminal and we want it back.
ZNBC is one of them. And anyone who have accrued K7m over a year with no track record of paying matching tax returns for the said period.
From time immemorial Parastatals and government institutions have been owing Government money and government has been equally owing money to this institutions and hence the word “debt swap”. Kambwili was at one time appealing to government institutions to be paying these government media institutions. The downfall of Zamtel was largely due to GRZ debt. How does GRZ close ZESCO its own institution because it is not paying tax because it can say that it not able to pay tax because GRZ owes it money. Differentiate the two i.e. GRZ institutions and private institutions. I am sure if GRZ owed the Post money it would have cried blue murder.
The Archdiocese of Lusaka is playing politics. Actually the Archbishop is setting a dangerous trend which can easily be traced to the troika of Chieftainess Nkomeshya, Archibishop Mpundu, and Fred M’membe. Once you do that, the church will be treated with gloves in the day to day battles and it’s possible it will be scathed. The Catholic Church in Zambia is a divided house mainly because the head is a very divisive figure. The pride of being Catholic has been absolutely eroded. The gains made by prevuus Archibishops or indeed Cardinal Mazombwe are on a slippery slope. The church is not winning new members whilst losing followers every day and no one seems to care. Every where in the church there are issues, see Ndola diocese. The church must not take partisan roles in political…
@Woyela: This issue is NOT even POLITICAL, it is about MORALITY!
Not paying taxes, actually I should say, not REMITTING taxes collected on behalf of the government is both morally wrong and repugnant. M’memba collected VAT each time an individual Zambian bought a copy of The Post newspaper. On top of that, he cut PAYE from his employees every month but never sent it to ZRA. This is the money (Tax) ZRA is now trying to recover from this crook. And this is after he played every trick in the book through the Courts trying to avoid paying—the same tricks he is still trying to play by going back to the Tax Tribunal after the Supreme Court has already ruled.
So for any Church to get in the middle of M’membe’s mess now and help him continue pretending, through his Tabloid Paper, to…
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…have MORAL HIGHER GROUND, when he completely has none at this point, is both WRONG and CHEAP politicking—I suggest the Church should lose its Tax Exempt status.
Rubbish fool’s like people who lives on criminal activities like upnd full of thugs and useless people who thinks by keeping animals you can keep people..PF for God upnd for evil people..
This man called M’membe is a very lucky man.in other countries he could be smelling feaces in prison now. Now because of the tolerance of the government . He keeps on yapping, i think he know Ediger cannot do anything
Of course Ediger can do something!
He can STEAL K23 MILLION of Zambian taxpayers money and NOT get investigated by the ZRA!
Why do you think he wants to get re-elected???
Imagine how much he will steal in FIVE-YEARS if he has managed that much in just one year!!!
Ecl will never open the past… good . Pay or riddance.
We shall c who will suffer after the so called elections. Watch the space dont cry thn bcoz there will nothing left n th coffers. IMF here she cometh. Brace yourselves for hard times.
No amount if running, rantings, lamentations and bickering will do. Mmembe must pay taxes like we all do. Let every thick-skulled human being get it. Thanks Sunday for exposing Mmembe’s trickery maneuvers.
Problem with UPND is, they behave as if they live on an island and not in Zambia. But even so every country operates through taxes but how come UPND does not want our Govt. to collect tax from the post? Is it for the sake of urging blindly or may be the ego to go to State house? Even the dullest person knows that the government to operate there must be a source of income for development to take place, but harass our friends in UPND do not know that. Oh may be when HH starts ruling he will be using his business money since HH and GBM are very rich. THE POST SHOULD PAY NO MATTER WHAT, this money of not ECL’s nor is it mine it is for all of us. And you ba Katolika do you want us to report you to Vatican? We know that Mmembe is one of you that does not mean that you should be supporting…
him even when you know that he is wrong, fine why can’t help him to pay.
So these dogs miss the Post actually, how come he is vomiting what the post said, imbwa kwena kuwayawaya fye mwe. Just thell your Chakolwa Boss to stop abusing his authoruty and let the post be operating, you have rendered so many innocent souls destitute imwe ba konto.