Vice President Guy Scott says he believes that Zambian citizens have a right to know the health of their president, but at the same time he attacked online media for publishing details about it.
Speaking in an especially candid interview on a ZNBC Special Programme last night, Scott said that he receives a lot of inquiries from investors wanting to know about the reported ill health of President Michael Sata.
He said that if President Sata was ill he could have noticed but had not seen any signs of ill health.
“I would not have even answered it except we get people like South African businessmen asking how is your President? We have read on the newspapers down there that there is a problem. It is just not true,” he said.
“So what can I say? If they (people) have no right to know then why am I telling you? They have a right to know.”
He said the story about President Sata’s failing health was a creation of the social media that he described mfwitis (witches). He also appeared to express frustration that he couldn’t send police to go arrest online journalists.
“The social media is infested with Mfwitis and ilombas (invisible creatures) we don’t know what their names are, we don’t know what their address is, we don’t even know where their survey is, they are unrestricted therefore are unknown and not subject to any kind of legal recourse,” said Scott, reinforcing a number of previous statements by the PF government regarding its position toward online media.
“They can make up what they want, interesting things which they notice. A newspaper, even one which is very anti-PF like Richard Sakala’s Daily Nation and you read it, it doesn’t say the same as the Watchdog, and the Watchdog is completely free. It can say anything but if you read the Daily Nation it doesn’t write that type of gossip, that type of rubbish because Richard Sakala knows that he will go bust if he peddles that kind of stuff. “
He added: “I have been campaigning with Michael Sata for 15 years I have heard that he has died or he is sick about 12 times. It is a routine thing for some reason it works as some form of campaign, I have even given up asking how are you when I read this kind of stuff, it is just the standard, it is a bad habit that has got in some people’s telephones and computers and they like passing it round. “
Scott stated: “You think I wouldn’t notice if he was ill. That is a Mfwitis story.”
The vice president also commented that he is not satisfied with the draft constitution in its current state.
On the Constitution Scott said that the Technical Committee was just a bunch of individuals who lost elections and also retirees whose preoccupation was to fight the PF.
“We are not satisfied with the draft constitution as it stands, and it is not the end of the world you can take the draft constitution and say let us do another draft or let us have a sensible debate but when the point is to undermine PF as much as possible electorally it is very difficult to talk because anything you do is they are being unreasonable,” he said.
“We did not ask for a complete constitution that it should be treated like the 10 commandments from Mount Sinai to give to the Zambian people, like God giving commandments to Moses.”
He said the Technical Committee comprised of “losers who were not superior beings.”
“What’s magical about that committee which had people that lost elections in 2011 or and some retired people and they got together and they manufactured that constitution,” he said of the committee appointed by President Michael Sata.
“I did not see any fire or big hand coming from the cloud coming to say here is your constitution.”
The post Guy Scott Blasts Online Media for Questioning Sata’s Health appeared first on Zambia Reports.