Antony Mukwita says PS Thabo Kawana overshadows minister , State House special assistants
Thabo Kawana taking to farmers over delayed 2024-2025 agriculture debt in Chisamba District, Central Province, Zambia.
Antony Mukwita says PS Thabo Kawana overshadows minister , State House special assistants
Hot Mic Diplomacy: Thabo Kawana Upstages His Boss on Diamond TV While Mweetwa Stews in Silence
TV take-21 Jan. 26.
Thabo Kawana is the man who can turn a microphone into a Molotov cocktail without breaking a sweat, the spokesperson who is not a minister, not a special advisor, not even the comms czar of State House, yet somehow manages to eclipse them all with one hot mic stunt on Diamond TV that makes the president himself look like a call in guest on his own show.
Mr. Cornelius Mweetwa, the actual minister of information, must have felt the sting of junior envy, watching his subordinate steal the limelight with a trick he himself never dared attempt.
Clayson Hamasaka, they call him Comms Specialist at State House too, the presidential comms specialist, has never pulled such a stunt, preferring the quiet dignity of scripted statements. Mostly funny.
But Thabo, ah Thabo, he thrives in the theatre of familiarity, calling the president live on air as if Hakainde Hichilema (HH) were his drinking buddy from Chibolya.
This is not random, it is choreographed, and therein lies the satire: the President of Zambia reduced to a prop in his own spokesperson’s show.
I must know this; I am a former newspaper CEO and Editor in Chief.
The pros are obvious—Kawana shows courage, loyalty, and a willingness to bite the bullet for his boss, much like Trump’s Steve Miller or Pete Hegseth in America.
The cons, however, drip with danger. Familiarity can backfire. In Africa, we saw how Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba often over performed his loyalty, sometimes making the president look smaller than the office itself, feeding resentment among ministers who felt sidelined.
Abroad, Sean Spicer in the US tried to defend Trump with theatrical loyalty, only to become a punchline and lose credibility, dragging the administration’s messaging into chaos.
Kawana risks the same fate: his boldness could make HH look like a man hiding behind his spokesperson instead of leading from the front.
When the bow breaks!
And the timing could not be worse. Farmers are unpaid, food and fuel costs are soaring into double digits, discontent is simmering six months before the polls. A hot mic stunt may entertain, but it does not feed hungry stomachs or calm angry voters.
The PR could have been done better. In the US, after the BP oil spill, President Obama did not rely on a spokesperson’s theatrics; he addressed the nation directly, showing empathy and control.
President HH could have done the same—speaking to farmers, acknowledging their pain, promising concrete relief—rather than letting Kawana’s familiarity overshadow the crisis.
I love Thabo as a brother and admire his courage, but satire demands I ask: is this the best strategy now? Should Thabo do this again?
Perhaps not. His loyalty is unquestionable, but his timing is catastrophic.
What will brother Cornelius parambulate 😂
Mweetwa’s jealousy over his junior is palpable, the minister forced to watch as Kawana plays star while he remains a supporting actor. In the end, familiarity may win applause in the studio, but it risks losing votes in the field.
Amb AM. 21.01.26
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