It is not a threat but a promise, we will not allow social media abuse to be used to intimidate or malign anyone, warns home affairs permanent secretary Josephs Akafumba.
Akafumba has since described the cyber crime Act as an “AK 47 which when fired is capable of leaving perpetrators permanently blinded or disabled”.
In an interview with The Mast, Akafumba said the curtains will soon draw to a close”.
“This is a not a threat but a promise. The curtains will soon draw on those abusing social media,” he said.
Akafumba added that apart from President Hakainde Hichilema being attacked a lot of other innocent Zambians have also been victims of cyber crimes. He said there is no constitution in the world that allows people to be defamed.
“It is painful to see a president who was heavily abused physically by the past regime and also verbally abused on social media to still be subjected to social media insults all in the name of freedom of speech.
It’s even worse now that he is President and I personally will not remain silent and watch without acting,” Akafumba said.
“The social media abuse does not only affect the Head of State but a lot of innocent Zambians. Many have lost their lives, many have lost their marriages, all because of cyber bullying and falsehood. We need to protect those that are yet to be victims and I will do just that.”
He said inasmuch as Zambia respects human rights and people’s freedom of speech “this should not be at the expense of another Zambian’s rights”.
“Where your rights end another’s starts. So we need to respect this narrative. Even in the savage animal kingdom animals respect each other. Lions hunt together, they don’t malign one another. Look Edwin, we have observed that 98 per cent of social media postings are lies and defamatory. True malice and when the truth is set out those who sent lies and unverified statements don’t come out to apologise for sending out falsewhood,” Akafumba said.
“We have heard ministers, senior government officials, being accused of corruption but no one comes out with evidence apart from social media ultimatums. Look here we have a former president’s son with over 60 vehicles not fully accounted for and people are busy saying that his father akabwelelapo (will return to power).”
He however, said social media is a very useful tool that can be used for progressive social and economic development once positively utilized.
Akafumba urged youths to use it to their advantage unlike taking to insults and other criminal activities.
“Social media abuse will be coming to an end soon. We are fully alive to the fact that like any law the cyber crime Act is an AK 47. When fired it will leave a lot of social media abusive bloggers disabled.
Some of them may remain permanently blinded under its firepower. And under these circumstances we will use this AK 47,” said Akafumba.
“This President you are insulting day and night is a human being. He is a husband, a father and grandfather and his children and wife read all this stupidity. Imagine it’s on you, what will your child think of? What has one HH done to deserve this? Please accept that he is your President, elected by over two million [votes].
A nation that has no respect for its leaders is a lost nation and we can’t be a lost nation just because of a few disgruntled people. We will deal with them, and I repeat this is not a threat but a promise.”