9^th July, 2008

PRESS RELEASE

The mystery is over. Malone Zaza, who tipped a South African radio station, Talk Radio 702,  last Thursday (July 3) that His Excellency the President, Dr Levy Mwanawasa, S.C., had died in a French military hospital, has owned up, apologizing unreservedly to the President, the president’s family, his own family, the people of Zambia and the international community at large for the pain and anguish caused to them “by my irresponsible statement.”

Zaza, who described himself as a 26-year-old third-year information systems student at the University of South Africa(UNISA), has appealed to the President and all concerned to forgive him, saying he did not mean to cause any harm. He said he was a law-abiding citizen who loved the President and wished him a quick recovery.

“I very much regret what I did, although what I had told the radio station was intended to be a tip which I expected them (the radio station)  to follow up and verify before putting it on the air,” Zaza said in an interview with me at  the New Cafe in Randburg, Johannesburg, on Tuesday evening.

Zaza denied that he had introduced himself to Talk Radio 702 as head of protocol at the Zambian High Commission in Pretoria and challenged the radio station to prove it. “I couldn’t have done such a thing. I was merely giving them a tip as a Zambian citizen who had received information that our president had died,” he said.

According to him, the previous day, Wednesday (July 2), he had heard rumours that the President had died. Then in the morning of Thursday(July 3), he received an SMS from a Zambian number informing him that the President had died that morning. He didn’t know whose number it was because he had recently lost his phone and the contacts with it.

Because of the previous day’s rumours, upon reading the SMS, he concluded that the President had actually died, especially that it was coming from someone in Zambia. Talk Radio 702 happened to be one of his favourite radio stations. This was why he phoned the newsroom of this radio station to inform them that the president had died.

“I introduced myself as Malone Zaza, a Zambian citizen. At no point did I introduce myself as head of protocol at the Zambian High Commission in Pretoria. I don’t know where they got that from,” he said.

He said that he was in meetings the whole of Thursday afternoon. Later, he got a phone call from his parents in Zambia telling him that there was a news item on international news wires quoting him that President Mwanawasa had died. The parents asked him where he had got that information from.

“I immediately realized that the SMS I had received about the president’s death was not true. But I also blamed Talk Radio 702 for spreading the news without first verifying it, although it was true that I was the one who had given them the tip. If they had called our embassy to verify, they would have realized that the tip I had given them was just a rumour,” Zaza said.

About 21 hours on Thursday, he contacted a friend to give him the phone number to the Acting High Commissioner, Mrs Catherine Lishomwa. He was unable to access Mrs Lishomwa’s number and instead talked to the counsellor at the mission, Mr Mtoloka Nyanga, with whom he arranged to meet the following day on Friday.

“I did not hide Mr Nyanga. I told him I was the person being quoted in the media reports. We arranged to meet in Johannesburg the following day, Friday, but the meeting did not take place because there was a break in trust between him and myself. I didn’t know who he was and what his intentions were.

“It was only after we had built trust in each other that we agreed to meet at the New Café in Randburg on Monday, July 7^th. We didn’t complete the job that evening, so we adjourned the discussion to today (Tuesday) at the same venue. For now, I can say we have concluded our discussion.”

He concluded: “I wish to apologise unreservedly to the President, his family, my own family, the people of Zambia and the international community at large for the pain and anguish caused to them by my irresponsible statement. I have learnt a bitter lesson from this experience. Please forgive me. I am sorry.”

PHILIP CHIRWA

SECOND SECRETARY(PRESS)