All the 16 Zambia News and Information Service (ZANIS) District Offices in Western Province have received cameras.
ZANIS Director, Loyce Saili who is in Mongu district handed over the last six cameras to the province after the first consignment of 10 cameras were disbursed to the province last year.
Speaking to ZANIS officers at the Provincial Office in Mongu District Ms Saili said she is fully aware of the challenges that the officers are facing in their operations countrywide.
“Even if it has taken me a while to come here, I know what is going on. We are trying to ensure that our provincial offices and district offices are equipped with the resources they need to do their work,” she said.
Ms Saili explained that in the last two years, professional cameras were procured for all the 10 provinces to ensure that all the provinces have a professional camera at provincial level.
The Director disclosed that over 60 districts now have the cameras for the District Information Officers.
“For Western Province, we have brought the last six sets of cameras hoping that now every district will have a camera,” she said.
Ms Saili explained that the equipment that has already been bought such as the 11 computers disbursed to the province in 2022 is an effort to try and provide officers with tools.
“All these efforts you see may not be to the extent you expect but at least we have to start from somewhere,” she said.
Ms Saili also pointed out that the issue of transport cannot be over emphasized as it is critical for a news organization like ZANIS.
“The issue of transport for a news organization like ours is critical. For us to get to where the news is happening, all these government developmental programmes are happening, we need to move,” Ms Saili said.
Meanwhile, Western Province Acting Assistant Secretary, Allan Simakando has commended ZANIS Director for ensuring that the department in Western Province is equipped with cameras.
Mr. Simakando said the tools will enable the information officers to work without giving excuses.
He said officers should not just sit in their offices and get paid for doing nothing and has since appealed to the ZANIS Director to quickly look into the challenge of transport in the department.
Mr. Simakando explained that ZANIS officers in the province depend on the provincial administration and other government departments for transport for news gathering.
