Below is a statement from stella Sata:
“So tempers are still high and I am probably the most disliked person on social media at the moment.
It’s not about what I said it is more about how it was said and WHO SAID it.
For quite a number of things, I can apologise. For quite a number of things- I will not apologise.
To begin with, I am not my father, my father’s successes and my father’s failures are not my own. If my father had an opinion on a matter, that does not automatically make it my opinion. So I will not apologise for what my father did or did not do. That is not my battle to fight.
Also, I will not apologise for what privileges or hardships came with being the daughter of Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata.
Apparently a SATA, a former Minister’s child, a former President’s child has NO RIGHT to speak about several issues. I am presumably privileged and have never gone through hardships so I have to keep quiet.
I will not apologise for speaking. And believe me I will always speak. Because I have a voice. The family I was born into is not grounds for anyone to call for my silence. Every hardworking person here works hard so their children can live a better life. I do not believe any of them is working hard so that their children may never speak about anything in public.
I stand against public shaming of any kind and ESPECIALLY public shaming targeted at me. I stand against it for the sake of every presumably privileged child and I stand against it for the sake of my own (future) children. No person should ever bow down to public ridicule because of their opinion.
Here in lies what I will apologise for. I will apologise for pissing off thousands of unemployed people or their families or anyone who has ever been a frustrated job seeker. I will also apologise for I myself, publicly shaming the #Jobless6 just because I do not agree with their methods of dealing with unemployment. This resulted in those people who agreed with my view publicly shaming them too.
Perhaps, my delivery of the message left a lot to be desired and gave room for the wrong interpretations. For that, I apologise. Not every one will understand what you say, the way you mean it.
I still stand by stance, that if a graduate can not get employed then they should be able to find means of making the informal sector work for them. There is so much potential that people do not exploit because we feel we worked too hard to start from anything less than a good paying entry job in Government or in established Corporations.
Are their hurdles to jump in the entrepreneurship arena? Many. In fact, you will probably become much more frustrated than you were when you were job hunting. BUT that is no reason to not try just because there are several hardships.”
Stella Sata