Opinion: The Plight of Fred M’membe & The Post

There is a limit for how long one can live on a borrowed thread. For a long time Post Newspapers editor Fred M’membe’s hour has been coming.

Not for the first time this week he has been crying wolf about the taxman coming to close his paper but the truth is that he had never believed in the prophesy of his own words. For a long time he has lived under the comfort of the belief of his invincibility. So invincible has he felt that he had even opted to neglect his statutory duties like paying tax.

He has lived in the comfort that he has crafted enough reputation over the years to keep at bay any real
threat from the tax man or any other forces that a newspaper naturally attracts by its very existence. There is no denying that he has owed the taxman and other statutory bodies money for a long time and has
neglected to pay. The only crime that the Zambia Revenue Authority has committed is to remind him of his statutory duties-paying tax.

Many of his defenders point to the fact that this is an act of persecution but has not everyone known for a long time that this is a figure that has long had a bad paying culture. Who does not know about how many legal gymnastics he has pulled over the years to pay the K14 million debt owed to the Development Bank of Zambia? Or this outstanding debt also amounts to persecution? Who does not know about how reluctantly he pays his workers’ salaries? Or just how much verbal abuse they have to undergo for the little spells they get their pay?

Just point to how far back the debt accumulation goes and it will give you an idea there has been no intention of paying that tax until the taxman came calling. How on earth did the tax bill reach US$6.1 million? Did it not get here due to having neglected paying tax for a long time?

Pulling those injunctions and counter injunctions will not help M’membe. For this always just been about paying tax and there could have been lasting peace if he had met his obligations to the taxman or
paying his workers at least the wage bill may have been a plausible excuse for his lapses.

So once the wolf came knocking on his door the almighty Fred was not ready for what hit him for even the demeanour he struck as he waved away reporters seeking his comment on the goings on told the whole
story. Maybe late President Michael Sata created an economic monster by allowing M’membe have his way through neglecting tax and granting him limitless business opportunities without obliging him to pay taxes
as part of the debt for The Post Newspapers’ role in helping the ruling Patriotic Front ascend to power.

In the end this has always been about giving Caesar what belongs to Caesar.

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