STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA Another case that emerged is the case of The Post newspaper in which former Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Chishimba Kambwili said The Post was closed by President Edgar Lungu38, The Mast reported: “I never closed The Post newspaper. The post was closed by ZRA and you know when The Post was closed the constitutional court had ruled that ministers must be out of the office and the time ZRA pounced on The Post, that time I wasn‟t the minister of Information and even if I was, decisions are made by cabinet and not by an individual,” Kambwili said. Asked to state whether there was a cabinet meeting to discuss this, he said, “No, that time there was no cabinet, there was only the President in office. So its ultimately the President who had directed ZRA to do that.” Despite not having statistics available from relevant authorities, a lot of people have lost money through the mobile money scams. In the last quarter, majority Airtel subscribers received messages from unknown numbers asking them to send money to them. To this day, relevant authorities have not issued a comprehensive report on how far the investigations have gone. Though the public has expressed concern in the matter, relevant authorities such as ZICTA and the Cyber Division of the Zambia Police have not made any statement in the media on the progress made to curb such a vice. The Daily Nation on 15th November reported39 that: We are deeply saddened by the failure by the Zambia Information Communication Technology Authority to track culprits involved in mobile money scams leading to an increase in the number of people being defrauded, the patriots for Economic Progress (PEP) have said. PEP President Sean Enock Tembo said it was sad that ZICTA has failed to bring culprits to book despite their cellphone numbers being known. 38 39 The Mast – Lungu Closed the Post – 26th October, 2018 Daily Nation – ZICTA Slammed for Failing to Stop Mobile Money Scams – 15th November, 2018 24