A 30 year old man accused of hate speech has been slapped with a 12 months jail sentence with hard labour by the Kalomo subordinate court.
Before resident magistrate Hamaimbo Mooya was Jackson Chama aged 30, of house number 238 of Makeni area in Lusaka who was charged with the offence of hate speech contrary to section 65 of the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act of 2021.
The accused was slapped with the charge following a complaint on February 16 by Lyod Siatontola aged 53 of plot number 30, Stage 3 compound of Kalomo on behalf of the state that an unknown male person while using a computer system shot a video and posted it on social media platforms, Tik Tok, Facebook and Whatsapp in which he was heard saying disparaging words against the people of Southern province.
The court heard that Chama said against the people of Southern Province that,” as an ethnic group that was entrusted by the people of Zambia to rule the country but that they have lamentably failed and likened the state of affairs in the country to that of Somalia.”
In the video the accused further said that the youths of the province better seize this moment while it lasts and get employed as police officers, office of the President, or as soldiers adding that when they come back into power, everyone would be chased.
When the facts of the matter were read to him by the prosecution yesterday in court, the accused acknowledged the details of the charge, which prompted magistrate Mooya during the judgement to slap a one year jail sentence on Chama.
“Taking in consideration that you are a first offender and you are a breadwinner of your family, I sentence you to 12 months imprisonment so that when you come back from jail you will be an ambassador of peace not divisions,” judged magistrate Mooya.
Meanwhile, Chama has appealed through the court to the republican President Hakainde Hichilema to forgive him for his mischievous utterances.
Both the smartphone and a diskette he stored the disparaging hate speech video which was recovered by the Police cyber security wing and brought to court as evidence have also been forfeited to the state.
