'We have to get paid': TV anchor interrupts live bulletin over salary claims

A TV anchor in Zambia has sensationally interrupted his live news bulletin to claim he and other co-workers at the network have not been paid.

KBN TV presenter Kabinda Kalimina was mid-bulletin on Saturday night when he went off script.

"Away from the news, ladies and gentlemen. We are human beings," Kabinda said.

"We have to get paid. Unfortunately, on KBN we haven't been paid… Sharon and everyone else haven't been paid, including myself. We have to get paid".

Before Kabinda could continue, the station cut him off, with the bulletin's opening sequence played again.

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"Yes, I did that on live TV, just because most journalists are scared to speak out doesn't mean journalists shouldn't speak out," he wrote in Facebook post.

In a statement, KBN TV chief executive Kennedy Mambwe labelled the incident appalling and suggested Kabinda was drunk.

"We are appalled with the drunken behaviour exhibited through a video clip that has gone viral on social media and staged by one of our part-time presenters during what should have been the main news bulletin last night," Mr Mambwe said.

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"Members of the public may wish to know that KBN TV like any other institution, has very well-established grievance procedures for all members of staff through which they can channel their complaints."

Kabinda has denied he was intoxicated at the time of the broadcast, listing the three bulletins he hosted over a number of hours before KBN management declared he was drunk.