Opinion: The M’membe and Malupenga Spat

It may come as a surprise to some that Post Newspapers Editor Fred M’membe has gone for his former sidekick Amos Malupenga.

Malupenga is one of those long serving employees at Plot 36 Bwinjimfumu that took the first flight out once late President Michael Sata won and recruited half the Post Newspapers newsroom in government.

M’membe had banked on the loyalty of Malupenga to shun a government job and remain in his wing where he had been groomed to cultivate a culture of brown nosing among employees.

Malupenga, despite being of humble education had risen through The Post Newspapers ranks thanks to his well grounded culture of telling on fellow employees to his puppeteer.

Armed with a certificate in journalism from Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce, Malupenga had little chance of getting to the top in a newsroom that in those days traditionally had highly qualified staff with others making up for their humble education with supreme talent- Malupenga had neither.

Over time he anointed himself as the blue eyed boy for M’membe opting to secretly record colleagues in private conversations in the newsroom and outside Plot 36. Others even entertained the extreme thought that Malupenga was a graduate of the Katele Kalumba School of ‘Computer Science’ to stay in his job.

The more enlightened and better educated in the system eventually saw the light and did the honourable thing and resigned. Out went many in including editor in Douglas Hampande, Webster Malido and Tabitha Mvula, among others.

Even this did not slow down Malupenga as he went about initiating kangaroo courts forcing even more employees out at the whims of his imagination.

Once M’membe had installed him as Managing Editor, essentially the third in the hierarchy, Malupenga wanted more action off the newsroom and struck a relationship with late President Levy Mwanawasa at the time M’membe was seeking favours from the state over his troubled Zambian Airways.

Did not Malupenga’s poorly and hurriedly write a biography on Mwanawasa exposng how deep he had dug himself in government auctioning the paper’s editorial independence? Did not ZNBC show us footage of Malupenga hurling himself at Levy’s coffin at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in a fashion one does not mourn even their beloved mother or wife?

So once M’membe sent Malupenga to Sata, the latter saw an escape route that Levy’s death denied him and duly begged for a job once the PF won elections in 2011.

M’membe has never hidden his disillusionment at Malupenga having jumped ship and has forever been whining about that fact. But he forgot Malupenga was able to do the things he asked of him being schooled in the darker arts of bootlicking.

If anyone has any doubt about the goings on let them refer to how Malupenga left his first call in government at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Who can forget the public spat between Malupenga and his successor Emmanuel Mwamba over tenders for the digital migration? Was that something new to Malupenga? All this information is in public domain.

Off he went to Western and then North Western Province and is back to the spot which is the Ministry of Local Government. Not one to shy away from being the chief executioner for his handlers, Malupenga is back in the limelight but only because his creators have sensed the monster they created.

Why is M’membe so jittery at Malupenga’s presence at the Ministry of Local Government? Did not the duo in the last elections enjoy the number games of releasing results before the Electoral Commission of Zambia (2006, 2008, 2011, and 2015)? Is M’membe implying that Malupenga is playing for both teams?

What is it that Malupenga knows that M’membe is scared of? Or is it that after years of grooming him as his number one sniffer dog, Malupenga has never come back to let M’membe in on the goings on in government?

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