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As President Travels for Treatment, State House Tries New PR Strategy(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Earlier today a brief media statement was circulated to media house by the Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations George Chellah announcing that President Michael Sata had last night traveled abroad for medical treatment. The statement contained very few details, and did not disclose the president's destination, but did note that First Lady Dr. Christine Kaseba and other family members were among the delegation traveling with the head of state. Nevertheless, the issuing of this statement represents an effort toward more transparency about the president's condition, as the usual routine in the past was for President Sata to secretly leave the country without informing the public. Other times, administration officials have been caught out lying about the president's location and status, such as the attempt to conceal a trip to Israel, and then later characterise it as a "working holiday. (Days later an Israeli official confirmed to the media that the Zambian president was in the country to receive medical treatment.) There was a similar public relations disaster when President Michael Sata failed to give a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, as officials denied confirmed reports by the New York Police Department that the president was attended to by emergency doctors in his hotel room. Only one month ago, Vice President Guy Scott claimed that the president was "in perfect health," prompting a negative reaction from the public, which is increasing demanding more information about the president. McDonald Chipenze, of the NGO Foundation for Democratic Processes (FODEP), issued a statement today commenting: "The absence and deafening silence by the Republican President HE Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata since coming from the UN meeting in New York is creating a lot of anxieties among electorate and the citizens in general ahead of the Jubilee Day Commemorations." George Chellah's statement admitting that the president is going for medical treatment, just four days before the very important 50th anniversary Jubilee celebrations, may represent a new approach to how State House handles this sensitive issue. According to one highly placed source inside State House, President Sata was fully occupied with his medical team on Saturday, sending away family and staff while his team of foreign doctors worked on him, including two visiting doctors from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "The two doctors from New York are being housed at the Southern Sun Ridgeway Hotel in Lusaka, and were working on the president all weekend," the source said. "His Excellency is not in a very bad state like he was a few months ago. He can walk and talk, but he is still having problems with low energy, sleep difficulties, and eating. He has also not been to his office since returning from Israel in early July." The latest medical checkup is likely a precautionary measure to make sure that the president has the strength to attend and officiate in some capacity the Jubilee events, the source said. Taking into account numerous foreign trips for medical treatment to South Africa, London, and Israel, as well as the days of treatment in Nkwazi House, President Sata has spent more days on the hospital bed in 2014 than he has in the presidential office. Copyright Zambia Reports. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |