Sean Tembo’s Response to Allegations of Racism by INformation Minister Chushi Kasanda

1. As Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) we are dismayed by the statement that was issued yesterday by the Minister of Information and Chief Government Spokesperson, Chushi Kasanda in which she alleged that we had issued racist remarks in relation to the DMMU Coordinator.

2. We wish to put it on record that at no time did we make any racist remarks. In line with our mandate and duty as an opposition political party in Zambia, we merely expressed concern about the inertia by the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) to assist victims of the floods that happened in Choma about a week ago, which submerged Mbabala bridge. We were moved to comment on the poor performance by DMMU because of the many complaints that we received via Facebook messenger by the victims of the floods and the lack of assistance on the ground.

3. We further wish to state that suspected UPND members have created multiple duplicate Facebook pages for “PeP” and “Sean Tembo” and whenever we post a political statement on our page, these undesirable individuals paraphrase our post and make a similar but offensive post on the fake Facebook pages and then proceed to take screenshots of their offensive posts and circulate them. This is a matter that has not arisen today. We have been complaining about it for the past 3 months or so. To an average person, it is difficult to tell the difference between the fake pages and the official party page, unless they check the number of followers. Most of the fake pages have less than 500 followers whereas the official party page has more than 100,000 followers.

4. With regard to yesterday’s post about the DMMU Coordinator, we noted that a paraphrased and offensive version of the post was circulated by the unscrupulous individuals about 30 minutes after the official post was made. Barely 15 minutes later, the Minister of Information issued her statement quoting and condemning the fake post which was in our name. Given the speed with which the Minister responded to the fake post, we are made to suspect that the Minister is working in tandem with the unscrupulous people that make fake Facebook posts in our name with the aim of putting our name into disrepute in the eyes of the public. If this is the case, then it is extremely regrettable and we wish to call upon the Minister to desist from such underhand behavior.

5. As Patriots for Economic Progress, we wish to advise the general public to always counter-check the number of followers on the “Sean Tembo” page that they are browsing in order to confirm that it is the official page. It is unfortunate that according to Facebook rules, a name cannot be patented, hence we are unable to take action against those who have created duplicate pages in our name. Additionally, our requests to have our page verified by Facebook have not been successful due to the existence of these duplicate fake pages with a similar name.

6. Lastly, we wish to appeal to the Minister of Information and Chief Government Spokesperson to always verify her information before rushing to the media to make unwarranted accusations against opposition leaders. As PeP leadership, we do not have an ounce of racist blood in our veins. If the Minister was in a particular mood to condemn racism, she should have condemned her boss, President Hakainde Hichilema who not very long ago referred to the then Vice President His Honor Mr Guy Scott as “the most stupid white man”. This racist insult by President Hichilema to Vice President Guy Scott in particular and white people in general was widely carried by the media at the time. President Hichilema has neither withdrawn nor apologized for this racist insult up to now. Therefore, before making wild unfounded allegations against us, Chushi Kasanda should first condemn the racists remarks by her boss, the President. Otherwise she has no moral pedestal to stand on and prescribe a standard of conduct for opposition leaders in this country.

Issued by:
PeP Media Team