Economic think tank in Africa’s second largest copper hotspot, Zambia, has clarified the recent asymmetry in the Head of States speech at its first ever dinner gala held on 12 Dec. In a press release, Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) Acting President Dr. Austin Mwange cited the media for misreporting on a number of issues that have made sensational headlines resulting in misreflecting of context in which the Head of State made various pronouncements at the dinner gala.
Firstly, the reference to our cooperating partners as cockroaches was an outright misrepresentation as the context in which the analogy was used was in line with resilience to adversity. Our understanding is that the Head of State advised Zambians to be resilient and not to focus on utterances at the expense of real economic issues. In no way did the Head of State imply malice to Chinese nationals in his speech. Infact, he joked on tribal lines also known as ‘chimbuya’ in local tradition with reference to Bemba’s who are his tribal cousins. The resilience analogy was first likened to his tribal cousins before extending to Chinese nationals who, irrespective of criticism, are a very resilient and entrepreneurial class, a trait he urged Zambians to fully emulate, the press release carried.
Secondly, the Head of State bemoaned the lack of participation and involvement of local bodies in current infrastructure developments such as the international airport. In this regard the Head of State challenged the Engineering Institute of Zambia – EIZ to come to the party on engineering and technical matters to include erection of platforms such as refrigeration capabilities as Zambia positions itself for export of goats to Saudi Arabia. The context in which the Head of State made this statement, was in the spirit of encouraging local bodies from providing advisory services as opposed to the state having to sub-contract international bodies which could not only be costlier but would be foregoing employment opportunities for the locally bred engineers.
The President, infact, gave credit to the legal body (LAZ) for stepping into areas where other professional bodies such as Economics Association of Zambia, ideally should have been actively involved in. It is for this reason that he praised the EAZ for taking their place back in society to ensure they are able to actively provide advisory in areas of their specialty. This follows a long period of inactivity by the Association.
Dr. Mwange stressed the need for accurate and mature reporting by the media with emphasis that sensational reporting is detrimental to the nations image. The Acting President advised that information is of immense value to the extent that misrepresentation has the ability to not only cause jitteriness to investors, but could cost the nation foreign direct investment potential. He cited that the media are key partners in ensuring that the dissemination of accurate, factual and non-sensational data is adhered to.
“Business reporting requires that context, meaning and ethics are not deviated from. The EAZ further advises that editorial teams seriously review content before it be released for public consumption for quality control,” Dr. Mwange said.