Media freedom space in Zambia has narrowed – Dr M’membe
By Staff Reporter
Media freedom space in the country has narrowed more than ever before, Socialist Party 2021 presidential candidate, Dr Fred M’membe.
And Dr M’membe said agriculture was key to the development of the country.
Speaking when he featured on Muvi TV’s The Furnace program dubbed ‘Socialist Governance Ideas’ yesterday evening, Dr M’membe told presenter Innocent Phiri that things had become more difficult for the journalists.
“Now we have television stations, radio stations and newspapers being closed,” he said.
And Dr M’membe has said all political parties had ideologies although others were all pursuing imperialist agendas.
“This country has 56 political parties, each of those political parties belong to an ideology,” he said.
Dr M’membe stated that the majority of political parties in Zambia are capitalists.
“Political parties we have can be grouped in one party, they are all pursuing a capitalist agenda,’’ he said.
And Dr M’embe said that he did not form the socialist party.
“It’s not a party formed by one person. It is a party formed by many people, it would be a very a big mistake to attribute the socialist party to me,” he said.
He indicated that he was a revolutionary and not a politician who pursue a political career.
“Am not a politician – a politician pursues a political career, a politician pursues political office. We revolutionaries do not pursue a political career and none of my comrades in the Socialist Party joined the party to take up a certain position,” he said.
He stated that socialists are deployed to take up responsibilities in the party.
“What i am doing now is not out of an ambition, am simply doing a duty,” he said.
“The Socialist Party was formed by Zambians for the Zambian working class. Of course, we are patriots without seizing to be internationalists”.
He said the party was by the humble and for the humble in society who possessed constitutional powers to remove or instal leadership in offices.
And Dr M’membe said without investing in agriculture with improved tools and methods, it was impossible to reduce poverty and attain sustainable development for the country.
“Without addressing agriculture production, we can’t deal with poverty. To increase agriculture production in this country we need to work on the implements, tools of agriculture,” he explained.
He said the Socialist Party would engage in Agro processing in areas of production and create more jobs for citizens instead of exporting raw materials.
“We need to start creating clothing factories, employing clothing designers, tailors, technicians servicing sewing machines,” Dr M’membe said.
He explained that the production chain to consumption or export would create employment for a lot of people.
Dr M’membe said the Socialist Party had already started planing how some of these policy measures would be implemented once elected into office in 2021.
He said the suffering of the people was so immense that the party would not wait to plan until they were elected.
