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| Reporting from Embassy Park in Lusaka during the burial for former President Frederick Chiluba in June 2011 |
It was February 2010 and I was unemployed.
I was doing internship at CUTS International Center in Northmead
area of Lusaka just after I had left New Vision Newspaper.
Costa Mwansa was then the General Manager at MUVI TV and 4 years
earlier he was my senior at Evelyn Hone College and he knew the political
animal in me when it comes to political reporting.
Costa sent me an email asking if I could apply for a job to join
MUVI TV.
Without hesitation, I sent in an application and I was called
for interviews.
I passed the interviews and on 1 March 2010, I reported for work
on the same day with Pennipher Sikainda (now Nyirenda) and Penelope
Kapambwe (now Sikazwe).
Because our first names start with P, employees called us the
three Ps.
The three of us were very close as we tried to settle down in
the newsroom.
The day I reported for work, Costa was chairing the diary
meeting and my first news idea was short down.
I had presented an idea on the challenges kids face when going
to school due to the floods which were ravaging Lusaka.
Costa offered to groom me and from that time, I learnt how to
present ideas for a community TV station.
Even my first narration for a TV report at MUVI TV was a mess, I
was actually banned for a month.
After grooming and abit of panel beating, I became an
unmistakable voice on MUVI TV's 18:30hrs Main News.
MUVI TV took me all over, locally and abroad.
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| With then opposition PF leader Michael Sata in Senanga, Western Province in May 2011 |
I had the chance to fly abroad for the first time to Istanbul,
Turkey to cover the United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries.
Then President Rupiah Banda attended the event and I covered it
for MUVI TV, my first international assignment as a journalist and while there,
I met my long time BBC mentor Umaru Fofana of Sierra Leone.
Locally, I used to cover President Banda and one time at the
Lusaka International Airport (now Kenneth Kaunda International Airport), I asked
him a very controversial political question (I can't remember it) and he
answered me jokingly: "Iwe mwana bakutuma, sorry ulibe lead story
lelo."
I covered Michael Sata in the opposition, travelled with him
countrywide and I even covered his promise to restore the Barotseland Agreement at a rally in Senanga, Western Province in May 2011.
His massive rallies both in Mongu and Senanga actually gave me
an indication that the man was heading somewhere as in 2008, Sata failed to
have sizeable rallies in Mongu, but in 2011 he was a hero in Barotseland.
Hakainde Hichilema was another politician I covered extensively
to an extent were to date, he calls me "Lozi Boy."
One rally I remember covering HH was in Choma in 2010 at Kings
Ground (I hear that place has been turned into a mall) were he launched the
"Real Change Campaign."
Another HH incident I remember vividly was in 2010 during the
Chilanga Parliamentary by-election after Ngande Magande was expelled by MMD,
Jimboz led by Chris Chalwe and William Banda almost beat him up, he was only
saved by Elisha Matambo, Richwell Siamunene and others who whisked him to a
classroom at Chilanga Primary School before Police fired teargas to dispess the
unruly MMD cadres.
All in all, my job at MUVI TV was to report politics and my
contract which I still have at home described me as a Politics Reporter.
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| With UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema at Chilanga Primary School during the Chilanga Parliamentary by-election in December 2010 |
To cement my role, MUVI TV allowed me to travel to Berlin,
Germany in September 2011 to study Politics and Governance at the International
Institute for Journalism were I spent almost three months with 14 other
journalists from Africa and Asia.
We were three Zambians on this training is: Morgan Kasuba a
freelancer and Ernest Chanda from The Post Newspapers.
Apart from reporting politics, I think my highlight at MUVI TV
was political analysis which i did almost every morning on the Sunrise
Breakfast Show with Costa Mwansa and Mabvuto Phiri.
This show was so heated: Costa would always be the moderator and
to strike a balance, Mabvuto would always support government and I would be the
government critic on the show so that viewers get balanced views on any given
topic.
This show made me a star and a villain at the same time.
Because of the show, many people around the country came to know
me.
Every morning we would receive text messages concerning topics
on discussion and one of the frequent contributors was Manix Kindaba of Solwezi
who has since become a very close friend.
Politicians tuned in every morning and we would debate soberly on various issues such as politics, the Constitution making process,
by-elections, etc with proper research.
We spent hours researching and when we go live on TV, we would
speak with authority like experienced political scientists.
However, that analysis also gave us some enemies as the 2011
general elections drew near.
We started watching our backs because the truth we spoke on TV
was hurting others.
When my two year contract was nearing it's end in February 2012,
I notified management that I would not seek to renew it because I wanted to
move on.
However, it took management two weeks to reply to me, they
reluctantly accepted my departure and off I went.
Looking back, I smile at MUVI TV and the great person it created
in me in just two years.
The experience I got, the contacts I made in the field and the
ropes I went through are what has made me a journalist iam today.
I don't believe in burning bridges I have crossed, I believe in
appreciating even the worst situations I have gone through because they make me
who Iam today.
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| Interviewing President Rupiah Banda during the MMD National Convention at Mulungushi Rock of Authority in Kabwe in April 2011 |
The sweetest memories I have of my time at MUVI TV was to rush
to an incident in one of the compounds and we find other TV stations filming
and when we arrive, everyone including those who were being interviewed abandon
the interviews and start shouting "MUVI! MUVI! MUVI! MUVI!"
The saddest event was in a place called Nakachenje in Lusaka
West were hundreds of MMD cadres ambushed our vehicle as we went to film a land
wrangle and they beat up our driver Eddie, Dainess Nyirenda (now
Sikamwaya) and Anita Kalwani.
The two ladies were actually threatened with rape and all
equipment which included a microphone, tripod stand and camera we're
confiscated by the Jimboz, an MMD security wing. (Not sure if this equipment
was recovered).
Brian Mwale, Bruce Mwale and myself who had remained in the car
survived the beating.
It is again at MUVI TV were I was the only TV reporter to have
covered the January 14, 2011 Mongu Riots were an undisclosed number of Barotse
activists were gunned down by Police.
All in all, MUVI TV shaped me, it gave me a great platform which
I still appreciate to date.
Without MUVI TV, were would I be?
When I die and an obituary is written about me and my journalism
career, MUVI TV will feature prominently in that write-up.
Happy 16th Birthday MUVI Television (Which
fell yesterday).
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