State House using Zambia Daily Mail to sell Daily Nation – SP
State House has ordered the government-owned and controlled Zambia Daily Mail through its courier service to freely sell and distribute ex-convict Richard Sakala’s Daily Nation newspaper countrywide, the Socialist Party media has revealed.
And the ruling PF have engaged the Zambia Daily Mail again through its courier section to distribute the party’s 2021 campaign regalia to various parts of the country without paying for the service.
Reliable Daily Nation management sources told the #SP MeDia Team that the Nebat Mbewe-headed Zambia Daily Mail management received instructions from the State House Press Office over 24 months ago to see it to it that the Zambia Daily Mail newspapers are distributed side by side with the privately-owned Daily Nation newspapers without any charge.
The workers said this has triggered liquidity problems at the once-thriving Zambia Daily Mail.
“This is a project of State House and the Zambia Daily Mail management are in a quandary over this because this is causing liquidity problems at that media institution. Why shouldn’t Daily Nation pay for the service?” the source asked. “Even when the printer at Daily Nation is down we go and print our newspaper at the Zambia Daily Mail again for free. This is not fair.”
Another source from Zambia Daily Mail, who was found distributing Daily Nation newspapers, told the #SP MeDia Team that the issue has been going on for about two years now.
“We have been doing this for two years. We just receive instructions,” said the source as he proceeded to distribute the Daily Nation newspapers in one of the country’s major cities.
And aggrieved workers recently confided to the #SP MeDia Team that the PF have for several months now been distributing campaign regalia ahead of the crucial 2021 general elections using the Zambia Daily Mail courier services for free.
“We were wondering what the packages that we were shipping out were until the other day we confirmed that they were 2021 PF campaign t-shirts destined for various parts of the country,” one of the workers said. “Just two days ago, one of our vehicles which was being used to distribute newspapers on the Copperbelt, also delivered a package of PF campaign regalia to ruling party officials in Mufulira.”
The workers complained that as a result of the PF’s interference in the operations of the Zambia Daily Mail, there was a mass exodus of workers from the media institution.
Source: SP Media